Chronicles of Razu Teionhakushi: Human-Machine in Foreign Lands
by Razwerkz
Summary: BOOK 1: Razu Teionhakushi, a human from outside Gensokyo's borders, finds himself in the mysterious land shortly after a mysterious accident, which has physically damaged his body. Utilizing his new mechanical parts as well as his newly-found magical power, can he and Marisa manage through the coming incidents?
1. Welcome to Gensokyo

CHAPTER 01 / Welcome to Gensokyo

Gensokyo, from what I had read, and heard from others, is an interesting place, filled with interesting people. I've also heard that something always seems to be happening in Gensokyo. My old town was boring-nothing ever happened. No sort of action or adventure to be found anywhere. The only thing I had going for me was my knowledge of computers and my occupation as a small-time DJ. The DJ thing was going downhill, though, so less and less started happening. Life became the ultimate bore. At least, until the accident.

I had recently moved into Gensokyo. Most of my things were still in boxes around the house. The only things not in boxes were my computers, a gaming console, and some other things that were too large to put in boxes to begin with. I had moved into a vacant house near a magic shop in the forest.

The house was three stories-attic, main floor, and basement-although you couldn't really tell from outside. It just looked like a small house like those you see in the Human Villiage. Hell, if I were still human, I would have moved there instead, and simply built onto it.

I had just finished reassembling the recharging station. Since it was finished, I felt like taking a nap, but I remembered, youkai like to roam these forests, looking for food and such. I needed to set up my field generator so I could protect my home. Now that I think about it, it might have been a good thing that I didn't move into the Human Villiage. With all the technology and such, my house would stand out like a sore thumb, and always attract all sorts of unwanted attention.

The instructions for assembling the field generator weren't in the same box as the rest of it. I sighed heavily, knowing I'd end up searching every single box in the house. I had the power supply-a nuclear fusion coil battery-in my hand, as I searched for the instructions. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. It was quiet, and the sudden noise startled me. I dropped the fusion coil onto the floor. It cracked. Dammit. I was lucky that the nuclear-powered coil didn't explode, but I wasn't sure it would work anymore. I whispered expletives to myself as I walked to the door.

I forced a smile and opened the door. The girl outside seemed kinda off. Then again, there are a lot of strange characters around here...not to mention myself. She had blonde hair, gold eyes, and was wearing some sort of witch's dress/maid's outfit combination, with the black dress and the white apron. Her witch's hat was obsurdly huge. She was looking at me with a tomboyish grin. I thought I recognized her, but I wasn't sure yet.

"New neighbour! Don't get many of those around here, ze!"

That's all I needed to hear. I knew who she was. I had heard about her and a shrine maiden going around solving incidents of sorts almost all the time. The girl in witch clothing would speak strangely, usually adding a "ze" somewhere in every other sentence. She was none other than-

"Marisa Kirisame, at your service, ze! I live and work at the shop back that-a-way. So, you here for business, vacation, or..." She stopped and looked past me and saw all the technology spread out across the livingroom floor. Her gold eyes lit up. I knew what that look meant, too. I heard Marisa likes to "quietly borrow" things. I should get that field generator put together soon.

She was stuck. I decided to continue the conversation and draw her attention back. "Nice to meet you; I've heard so much." I extended my hand for a shake. She slapped me five instead.

"So, what's all that techy stuff in there for, ze? Not only that, but aren't you a human? Why didn't you move into the Human Villiage instead? Kinda dangerous around here sometimes, ze."

I decided to answer both of her questions at the same time. "That over there is my recharging station, and that's a field generator for keeping youkai and other intruders out." Her smile faded slightly at the mention of a type of security system, but she didn't seem to change her mood much. I continued. "And to answer your other question, I'm not exactly human...well, not completely. I'm sort of a cyborg. There was this accident, and...well, I don't wanna bore you with my life story."

"Cyborg, huh? Not many of those around Gensokyo, from what I see. So what brings you to these parts?"

I didn't want to tell the truth. My memories of what happened were flooding my mind. I blurted something out. "Just wanted to see new places, is all."

"Well, drop by the shop sometime! You know the place, right? Kirisame Magic Shop, just down that path over there."

"I'll be sure to pay a visit soon." I nodded and smiled. She turned to leave. She stopped after a few steps, and turned back to me.

"Oh, what's your name, ze? You forgot to tell me."

I was from the other side of the world. I figured nobody here would know anything about me or the accident.

"Razu Teionhakushi. Everyone calls me Raz."


	2. Love-Coloured Magic

CHAPTER 02 / Love-Coloured Magic

I closed the door and went back into the livingroom, and looked down at the damaged coil. As I picked it up and looked at the crack, I had a flashback of the accident. A massive explosion. Everything, destroyed in an instant. I shook my head and tried to force the memories away. Coming back to the present, I looked at the coil and wondered...where can someone get a nuclear fusion coil around here?

For now, the field generator will have to stay inoperational. The coil might still work, but I didn't want to chance an explosion if it didn't. I didn't know much else to do; I'd just ask Marisa tomorrow. It was getting late, and I hadn't slept in a couple days. I connected to the recharging station and went to sleep.

/ / / / /

I woke up and disconnected from the recharging station. I got some things from out of one of the moving boxes and put together breakfast. I looked at the clock, which was sitting on the table. I hadn't hung it up yet. 13:37. Damn, I slept in again.

The coil was sitting on the table now. I picked it up and figured I might as well pay Marisa a visit.

My hair was a mess. I had black hair that reached to my back, and it was all over the place. Setting the coil down at the sink, I looked at the mirror, into a mysterious character's crimson eyes. The mirrored image had a strange deformity in his right eye that was shaped like a three-parted circle, where each part had a small outward-going prong. The copycat in the mirror straightened his hair as I did.

Broken coil in hand, I walked out the door and locked it. I started down the trail towards the magic shop. Strangely, it started to get dark. It couldn't be that the trees were blocking out the sun that much...

I checked my internal clock. It was only a bit past 14:00; no way it could be this dark already. Then I saw something. No, someone. A girl in black and white school-like attire was floating a few feet above and in front, with her arms extended out to each side. She had blonde hair with a red ribbon tied to it.

I remembered Marisa saying something about how dangerous the forest can be. But this little girl in front of me seemed close to harmless. Sure, she was flying, but that's nothing new around here, from what I understand.

She stayed floating there, smiling at me, with this childish smile, arms outstretched. A few minutes had passed. It was getting creepy. I had to say something. "Who are you?"

The girl laughed a childlike laugh. "Who am I? I'm Rumia...who are you?"

I told her my name. She kept smiling and holding her arms out. Why the hell was she doing that?

"Is that so?"

"I'm looking for the Kirisame Magic Shop. Could you point me in its direction...?"

"I wouldn't be worried about getting there. You won't make it that far."

What did she just say to me? I was beginning to reconsider my previous opinion on how much of a threat this Rumia was.

"What are you saying?" She was still holding out her arms. It was getting annoying. "And why are you holding out your arms like that?"

"You know, not a person goes by that doesn't ask that. How is it not obvious?"

"Are you trying to pull off a crucifiction?" I was puzzled, but I tried to keep her talking while I examined my surroundings for an escape. I could defend myself, but not for long.

"Finally, someone gets it!" Rumia laughed and applauded briefly. This girl seemed more and more childish. Then she said something I had never expected a child to say... "Since you didn't give me so much grief, I'll make your death quick and painless before I eat you!"

Sure, I was 45% prosthetics, but that other 55% of me was, in fact, human. Meaty, tasty human. She started moving towards me. My sensors detected her stress and adrenaline levels. Silent alarms were pulsing my senses. I knew she was about to attack.

She came at me, arms still outstretched. God, that was getting annoying! I jumped out of the way. She missed, but recovered quickly. I was only delaying the inevitable. She came at me, going for the kill. I was on the ground. I wouldn't be able to escape this one. I held up my arms in an attempt to block and tightly closed my eyes.

"Love Sign: 'Master Spark'!"

I could feel the sudden wave of magic and overwhelming power. I opened my eyes. Marisa was standing to my left. She was firing a wide, brightly coloured beam from her palm. It was a direct hit. Rumia was gone. The light returned to the forest.

Marisa helped me up. I looked at the scorch mark that went across where Rumia was. I was wrong. If it had really been a direct hit, there surely would have been something left of her. Marisa walked up to where I was looking, and must have thought the same thing. "Hmm, got away, ze."

I looked up. "Now I see what you meant when you said it can be dangerous here."

"So I'm assuming that you decided to come to the shop, ze?"

The damaged fusion coil. I checked my pockets. Then I looked over where I had dove out of the way from Rumia's first attack. It was laying on the ground. It seemed to not have taken any more damage from the day's events. I picked it up. Examining the coil, I thought to myself, "I've got to be more careful."

Marisa observed the object I was holding. "What's that?"

"This is the reason I came this way. What do you know about nuclear power sources?"

"Not much, ze, but I know someone who does." She paused. "I'm heading to Reimu's place after awhile. We will all three go to see her afterward. In the meantime, come on over to the shop."

I had nothing better to do. Why not? I followed her to the shop.


	3. Music is the Greatest Weapon

CHAPTER 03 / Music is the Greatest Weapon

As Marisa and I walked to the magic shop, I thought back to the encounter with Rumia. Marisa declared her attack. I could hear it. When I opened my eyes she was firing a wide magical laser-like attack. When it cleared out, I remember seeing a piece of paper falling from her hand, burning and turning to ashes, and blowing away in the wind.

I stopped pondering about it once we arrived. The shop looked like a simple house, except it had kudzu growing all around and over it, and had some strange, glowing mushrooms growing in the front yard. She saw me looking. "Magic mushrooms, ze," she said. I kept my jokes to myself.

We walked inside. Oh my God. Books. EVERYWHERE. A thousand different books about different types of magic, spells, and such, in stacks and piles all over the place. It was actually kinda difficult to navigate through the house. On the table was a lamp, an ink pen, some blank cards, and a book. The book was laying open on the title page. The inside of the cover had a lavender ink stamp on it-two letters: PK. The title was "Elemental Spells IV: Utilizing Fire and Metal Spells".

Without realizing it, I went over to the table and picked up the book, and I found myself thumbing through the pages. These were pretty interesting. Powerful spells, like summoning of large sawblades that fly at the enemy, and generating molten fireballs to use as projectiles.

Marisa noticed how deeply interested in the book I was. "Know any spells like that, ze?"

"I don't know any spells."

Marisa appeared surprised. "You live HERE and don't know any spells?"

"I don't have very much experience with magic." I looked around. I saw a red book with a music note on the spine. Being a former DJ, it caught my interest. "...Mind if I take a look at this?"

"Huh? Oh, sure. Go on ahead."

The book had its title in gold embossed letters, on the cover. "Duel Tactics: Manipulating Sound to Gain an Advantage".

I got lost in this book. Amazed, I was, at how soundwaves can be manipulated using magical energy. I memorized key information, and decided to bring the book to Marisa. "I wanna try some of this, but I need help with something."

Marisa looked at the page I was on last. "'Zat so? What'cha need help with?"

I pointed at the paragraph in question. "It mentions something of a 'prerendered evocation foci'."

"Oh, it means a spellcard," she answered. "The magical energy comes from you, but without the card as a focal point, all you have is raw magic energy. You see, anyone can manipulate magic energy, ze, but for inexperienced and weak users, it could easily get out of control, and they can do as much damage to themselves as they do to their opponent." I thought about it for a second, and I saw how it could make sense.

It took me almost no time at all to come up with some spellcard ideas. "Say...if I come up with some basis for a few spellcards, can you make them for me?"

"Sure! Hell, you might even get to use them when we go visit the crow."

Crow? Was she talking about Reimu? I didn't see how that made any sense, but I didn't say anything regarding it. I assumed that I would find out soon enough. I wrote some spellcard ideas down and gave her the paper. "Make a couple extra. I wanna test these once they are ready."

/ / / / /

"Finished, ze!"

I must have fallen into sleep mode while waiting. Marisa's sudden exclamation woke me up. I checked the time; it was about 17:00. I looked at her. She held the cards out inches from my face. She seemed very proud of her creations.

I took the cards and observed them. Sound spells. Good ones, too, from the look of the designs on the cards. One instantly caught my attention. It seemed to be a wide, beam-like attack.

"10,000 Decibels: 'Bass Blast'."

"Based it on Master Spark, ze. Big laser made of bass sound. Makes a big boom, ze!" I liked the sound of that. "I made eight of them, so feel free to use whenever, ze."

I decided to skip the test run. I like surprises. Besides, what better test method is there than on the field?

"Here's something to carry them in." She handed me a leather pouch she had fashioned together. I clipped it onto my belt. "We're heading over to Reimu's in a minute."


	4. The Red-White Shrine Maiden

CHAPTER 04 / The Red-White Shrine Maiden

The shop door slammed shut behind us. The hinges seemed loose so the door swung loosely and freely.

Marisa was holding a bamboo broom. "You fly, ze?"

The changes my body went through when the prosthetics were applied caused an abnormal circulation of magic to start flowing through me. Due to this, I can manipulate force at will, meaning I can lift and move things without touching them, using magical energy to manipulate either carbon or oxygen atoms in or around things. I could even use this ability to move myself at will, resulting in flight. This power also allowed me to create field barriers, sorta like what the field generator does. The only reason I don't make my own field around my house is because it would drain my energy dramatically to keep it sustained for so long.

I answered Marisa's question. "Good thing, ze. I don't do passengers," she replied as she mounted her broomstick. "One-seater, y'know."

/ / / / /

There are some amazing sights to behold from this high in the sky. We were probably about 300 feet off the ground. From here, I could see the entire forest. A bit of a way from the forest there is a lake. There appeared to be a building, some sort of mansion there, on a small island in the middle. I could see a girl in green sleeping at the front gate.

"That's Scarlet Devil Mansion." She answered me before I had even asked the question.

That's right, Scarlet Devil Mansion...I remember reading about a sort of incident involving a red mist that turned out to be caused by a vampire that lives there, back in 2002. Since then, I've wanted to visit there. I don't know why. It just seemed to peak my interest.

Marisa saw me observing the mansion. "Wanna go there sometime, ze? I'll take you with me next time I borrow books from Patchy."

"Sure," I said.

/ / / / /

We were coming up on a hill that had what looked like a thousand stone steps leading up to a shrine. I bet this is Reimu's place.

We arrived at the shrine. The shrine maiden was wearing the standard red and white shrine maiden attire, along with a yellow neckerchief and a large red ribbon in her hair. She seemed to be talking to a small girl with horns. The girl was wearing chains on her wrists, and had ribbons on her horns.

"But this isn't enough to get sake with all that other stuff!" the horned girl whined.

"It's all I have," Reimu responded.

"But I want sakeeee!"

"You said you wanted to run to the store for me, didn't you? I'll give you more money for sake once I get a bit more in the donation box."

"But who knows when that'll be!?"

Reimu scowled at that remark. She didn't like it when others commented on her money problems. "Besides, what happened to your gourd?"

Marisa made her presence known in the best way possible. "Oh, I borrowed it, ze."

Reimu and the horned girl looked at Marisa.

"Got super drunk the other night, ze!"

"You friggin' klepto! Give it back now!"

"Suika, chill, I'll bring it back! But first I have business, ze." Marisa pointed her thumb over her shoulder and behind her, towards me. Everyone's attention followed suit.

Reimu looked at me, and smirked. "Got a boyfriend, do you now, Marisa?

Marisa laughed, and I found myself turning a slight shade of red. I turned and looked off to the side.

"No, this is my new neighbour, Raz."

I turned and walked toward Reimu, and formally introduced myself. She did the same. "Reimu Hakurei. Finally, another human around here with manners." She thought for a moment. "Wait...you're human. Why do you live in the forest where all the youkai are roaming about?

"Well, I-"

"He's a robot, ze!" Marisa said, cutting me off.

"No, I'm a cyborg; there's a difference!"

"Alright, alright, RoboRaz, don't overheat on us, now." I see why Reimu was emphasizing the whole manners thing. She has to put up with Marisa all the time.

"I see. That's quite different," said Reimu. She turned briefly to Suika, who had hung around to see what the fuss was all about. "Why don't you go on to the store now?"

"But I want sake!"

It seemed that she wasn't going to leave for groceries until she had enough for sake as well. I pulled out my wallet and gave Suika enough to buy a couple bottles. Her eyes lit up. She excitedly hugged me and ran for the store. Reimu seemed to be eyeing the money in the wallet. I noticed, then realized I was standing next to a box labeled "Donations". I casually dropped some money inside it. Reimu smiled. I heard it hit the wood bottom of the box. She really didn't have any money left.

"So," Reimu asked, "what did the two of you need?" Marisa started.

As Marisa was explaining her reason for coming, I observed the area. There was a great view of most of Gensokyo from the shrine. I see why she built it here. The evening sunset gave the land below the perfect palette.

I hadn't been paying much attention to the girls. Marisa had already finished discussing her business with Reimu. I heard my name.

"Oh, Raz needs help with something, ze." I turned towards the two and walked back to them. I showed Reimu the fusion coil. I explained my dilemma.

"My, that is a problem, isn't it? Well, the only other person I know that handles nuclear ANYTHING is Utsuho."

"So how do we go about scheduling a visit?"

"We will have to go and visit her in Old Hell. She's the regulator of the fires and such."

Hell? Regulator of the fires? My confusion was visible in my facial expression.

Marisa filled in the blanks for me. "She's a yatagarasu, ze. A sun goddess; a hell raven."

Goddess? So, to repair a fusion coil, my best bet is this Utsuho character? This "hell raven"? Well, things seemed to pick up already. Looks like I won't be worrying about boredom here in Gensokyo.

"Sounds like fun. When do we go?" My sudden increase in interest caused Reimu's eyes to widen. Marisa grinned. "'Atta boy, Razzy! Show no fear, ze!" I smiled.

"So, how do we get there? To Old Hell?"

"There's a way down back behind the shrine. We can go now, if you like."

I was so ready to use the spellcards Marisa had created for me. I smirked. "Let's go."


	5. To Hell and Back: Part One

CHAPTER 05 / To Hell and Back: Part One

We started down the old inactive geyser behind the shrine. From the looks of things, it sure enough went straight down into Hell. "How did this geyser get here, anyway? Is Utsuho to blame?"

Reimu responded. "There was an incident not too long ago, where this geyser first appeared. Youkai from underground started flooding out of it and causing trouble above ground. Marisa and I went down to investigate. Utsuho actually was the one behind it."

"Thankfully, Okuu's kinda ditzy though, ze," Marisa added. "If she wasn't such a birdbrain she probably woulda blown us up into tiny little pieces!"

"So, what does she do nowadays?"

"She regulates Old Hell's fires, by means of nuclear fusion."

So she handles nuclear fusion directly. She would, in fact, be the best choice for my request.

/ / / / /

We had been travelling down for a while now. I couldn't see the sky anymore. I checked my clock. 23:27. Sure, it was late, but no matter. I'm more of a nighttime person anyway.

It was starting to get hot. I could see a light on ahead. I recognized the way it glowed. That's nuclear energy. I could feel it, too. As we got closer, it got hotter.

When we arrived to the lowest level, I looked around. Was this Old Hell? It looks like a nuclear reactor chamber.

Suddenly, a loud klaxon alarm sounded. A PA system shouted: "CAUTION! FOREIGN SUBSTANCE DETECTED IN MAIN REACTOR!"

Almost right on cue, she came to the area to check, to find us. She seemed to be more focused on Reimu and Marisa than me.

"You two again! What the hell are you doing in my reactor?" The angry girl before us had large raven-black wings that held a white cape aloft. The inside of the cape had a starry pattern about it. She wore a white blouse with green trim, a short green skirt with white trim, and a green bow in her hair. She seemed to have a large red third eye in the center of her chest. Her ankle had what looked like atoms orbiting it, and the opposite foot seemed to be covered in congealed matter. I recognized it-fission and fusion. She had a device on her arm. It seemed like a cannon of some sort. I could tell that that was what she used to regulate her nuclear abilities.

"Well!?" Utsuho was becoming impatient.

Without thinking, I moved forward. "I've come seeking your help. I have a nuclear fusion coil that needs to be repaired or replaced, and you seem to be-"

"And just who might YOU be?"

"Razu Teionhakushi, or just Raz is fine. Would you-"

"I have no business with you, go away! I'm dealing with intruders!" Was I really so insignificant?

She focused on the girls. "Give me one good reason not to incinerate you both where you are!" She aimed her arm cannon as if to both point her finger at the two as well as take aim and prepare to fire. She seemed to be charging a shot.

Reimu and Marisa were bracing for an attack. Reimu had a spellcard at the ready. Marisa was reaching for one of her own.

Utsuho smirked. "No reason, huh? Guess I'll just have to eradicate you!" She fired, and a beam of raw nuclear energy was unleashed, heading right towards them. They weren't ready for it yet.

She wasn't focusing on me. I pulled the spellcard from the leather pouch and took aim.

"10,000 Decibels: 'Bass Blast'!"

I felt a surge of magic energy come from within me. It flowed through my body, and into my hands. I instinctively held my hands forward. An extremely loud, extremely low bass sound pulsed from my hands, so strongly that it created a visible wave that soon focused into a red beam. I was pushed back a bit. The sound of the attack itself shook everything.

Utsuho's attack was stopped dead as the attack hit its mark. She was slammed hard against the chamber wall. I could see Reimu looking on in amazement. Marisa seemed amazed, too. She knew it would be powerful, but it was VERY powerful. Probably even with Master Spark itself.

When the spell was finished, the card disintegrated. It had been used for all it was worth. Everyone looked at the Utsuho-shaped crater in the wall, where she had been pushed through. She was still conscious.

The hole in the wall was suddenly blasted wide open. Utsuho came out of the wall.

"Oh, you shouldn't have done that."


	6. To Hell and Back: Part Two

CHAPTER 06 / To Hell and Back: Part Two

"Just who the hell do you think you are!?"

Utsuho was pissed. The blast did nothing more than knock her backward through a wall and tatter her clothing. If I hadn't interfered, though, Reimu and Marisa might not have survived.

"I'm Razu Teionhakushi, and I won't stand for you attacking my friends! You're going down!"

Marisa and Reimu were amazed. I hadn't known either of them for long at all, and I've already saved their lives once. But, realizing the coming battle, they came to my side to assist me.

"Thanks, I really owe you one," said Reimu.

"WE owe you one, ze. I probably woulda been fine though, but Reimu woulda been blasted hard, ze!"

Reimu smacked Marisa in the back of the head. "Hey, shut up!" I chuckled.

"ENOUGH!" Utsuho was becoming irritated. "I'LL EVAPORATE YOU ALL THIS INSTANT!" Utsuho held out a spellcard. She charged the nuclear energy around her, and it ignited in the form of rockets behind her.

"Rocket Dive!"

She charged headstrong towards us, the nuclear energy propelling her forward. Marisa and I flew clear. Reimu was clipped trying to escape it, and was sent into a spin further down the chamber. She regained flight before going too far down.

Utsuho had her back turned to me. Now's my chance. I pulled another card from the pouch. I thought to myself, time to see what this baby can do!

I held the card out towards my target, with two fingers, as I declared the spell.

"Audio Sign: 'Electrostatic'!"

An electric pulse flowed down my arms, to my hands, and fired outward in the form of a crackling lightningbolt. The sound of the attack sounded like jagged, rough noise.

The bolt hit her right in the center of her back, inbetween her wings. She was forced forward, and collided with the wall. She fell downward towards the core below. She was able to recover. She placed her hand on the right side of her face. Her forehead was bleeding all down one side, and she couldn't open her right eye. She looked up at me from below.

Reimu was about fifty feet in front of her. She saw an opening for an attack. She drew a spellcard and declared.

"Spirit Sign: 'Fantasy Orb'!"

Several brightly coloured orbs of elemental magic energy came from her body. They orbited her for a moment, until Reimu directed them towards Utsuho. All of the orbs went straight for her. She hadn't realized the attack until it was too late to dodge. She took every orb. Feathers flew.

Utsuho was weak by now. But she wasn't showing it. Clothes torn, one wing fractured, and blood pouring from her forehead, and she still seeks to "eradicate" us. "Nnh...doesn't hurt at all...!" ...That was a straight-out lie. She could barely keep from falling into the core below.

Utsuho looked at Marisa and myself. She looked like she was about to give one more attack all she had. She was holding another spellcard. As she held it, she aimed her arm cannon in our direction. It opened. She was charging for one final blast, and she was going for a big one. "This is it; I'll burn your sorry asses until there is nothing left!"

How did she still have this much energy left? Now was no time to think about it. Marisa and I both pulled one spellcard each. We looked at each other, and smiled. "Time to finish this, ze!"

Everyone declared at the same time.

"10,000 Decibels: 'Bass Blast'!"

"Love Sign: 'Master Spark'!"

"Explosion Sign: 'Giga Flare'!"

Master Spark and Bass Blast merged into one brilliant high-powered laser. Utsuho fired an ultra-wide beam of overwhelming nuclear power. The two attacks collided. For awhile, it was a standoff. Everyone poured as much power into their attacks as they could. Finally, the Bass-Spark combination pierced through Utsuho's attack, and hit her directly. She was sent careening straight down towards the core. I materialized a field below to catch her. A dead hell raven can't fix my fusion coil.

Utsuho was unconscious, and badly injured. But she would be able to heal with rest. I looked at Reimu. "I need her alive. Can we take her to the shrine to rest?"

Reimu was stunned. "What? You want me to keep a walking nuke at my shrine? You're nuts!"

"Hmm. I might have more money for the donation box. Maybe I'll chip in more when we return..."

"...I guess she can stay, as long as she leaves immediately after your business with her is done." I smiled.

/ / / / /

I kept Utsuho floating next to me as we headed towards the surface. Marisa was smiling at me.

"...What?"

Marisa turned a slight red and turned forward, as if she weren't looking at me at all. "Ahh, it's nothing, ze. Just glad we won, that's all."


	7. Redemption

CHAPTER 07 / Redemption

Utsuho was still out when we arrived at the shrine. Some blankets were set out on the floor, as there was only one bed in the shrine. Despite that, Marisa and I stayed over as well. I had no need for a comfortable bed; I could simply sit leaning against the wall and sleep. Marisa just slept in the floor.

/ / / / /

I woke up around 11:00. I looked to find Marisa and Utsuho were still sleeping. Reimu was up, and had already eaten her breakfast. She was now cleaning the shrine.

She saw I was awake. "Thanks again for protecting us last night."

"Thanks for coming with," I replied. "I wouldn't have been able to handle her alone."

We both saw Utsuho awaken, then jerk up in surprise. "Unyu? Where am I?"

"You were going to fall into the core," I told her. "I kept you from falling in. I brought you back here to rest and regain your strength."

"Oh, if I were to fall into the core, I would have been fine. Most of my being is nuclear energy."

I felt kinda stupid for not realizing that. But whatever. I had her here, and now it was time to get what I came for. I showed her the fusion coil. "Can you repair this?"

Utsuho analyzed the coil. "Psh. I can make you one ten times better than that!"

I didn't want one better. Having this thing alone was dangerous enough. "Please, just fix this one."

"Fine," she sighed. She took the coil and got to work. I went over to Marisa, who was still asleep. She was snoring. Not loudly, but audibly enough to hear the little "ze" sighed after every other snore. I laughed quietly.

I looked over to Reimu. "Think I should wake her?" No answer. She was preoccupied with her cleaning. I decided to nudge her. "Hey, Sleeping Beauty, wake up." She twitched. I poked her forehead.

She jerked awake with a sudden "snort-ZE!?" and looked up to find me poking at her forehead. I laughed.

"Nice snore."

"I was snoring?"

/ / / / /

Utsuho had finished repairs on the fusion coil. She brought it to me. I looked it over. Sure enough, it was good as new. I let Marisa know. "Alrighty, ze. Come with me to the shop. I want to give you something." I nodded, and we walked outside. We waved goodbye to Reimu and Utsuho, and took off.

/ / / / /

We arrived at the shop at about 13:30. Marisa entered first. She told me to wait in the main room. She took a book from one of the stacks and went into the back.

Probably about seven minutes later, she returned. She gave me three new cards. They were the same one. But these were different than the others. Advanced spells, that drain a lot of energy. She looked at me. "Figured you were ready for something more powerful, ze. But listen..." Her face became serious. "Only use these as a last resort. They drain a lot of magical and physical energy when used. Use them at the wrong time, and you'll be too weak to continue fighting, and you'll be left open, ze." I nodded, and took another look at the cards. The illustration showed an array of Bass Blast-type lasers that went in a wide area-covering wave, as well as a homing Electrostatic bolt. It also hit a certain frequency that causes electromagnetic pulses that could disable electronics.

Intelligent Dance: 'Subsonic Fracture'.

"Another thing," she continued. "Pretty neat trick that was last night, when you combined Bass Blast with Master Spark, ze. I'm impressed."

I smiled. Then I remembered, I should probably get this coil home. I said my goodbyes to Marisa, thanked her for her help, and went on my way.

I had walked about halfway to my house when it started getting dark again. Not this again...

It suddenly became pitch black. Thankfully, my left eye-the one with the circular deformity-was a prosthetic, and could see in different ways. For example, nightvision. Rumia must not have counted on that.

But she was smarter than I thought. She didn't waste time with reintroducing herself. She took advantage of what would have been the perfect time to strike. Suddenly, she swooped straight in towards me. I put up a small field in front of me to block her. I saw her collide with it. She didn't seem very phased. She moved back a bit, then lunged for me again. I couldn't get a field up quick enough. She sunk her teeth into my arm.

"Agh, you bitch!" I swung her off of me, and pulled a spellcard. Hm. I hadn't used this one yet. I noticed it had two uses: 'hi' and 'lo'. Hi seemed to be a stun. Lo appeared to inflict physical damage. I thought, "let's try..."

"Noise Sign: 'Orbital Sine' - Hi!"

I held out my palm in her direction. A high-treble wave formed a piercingly high sound. Rumia covered her ears and fell to the ground, cringing. I took control of the atoms surrounding her and lifted her into the air, then slammed her down. Rumia was barely conscious. She hadn't the strength to continue.

I grabbed her by the hair and lifted her head so she was looking at me. "Come near my house again, and you will not survive." She passed out. The darkness cleared. Suddenly, my left eye could only see white. Nightvision is useless in the light. I switched back to normal vision.

/ / / / /

When I arrived home, the first thing I did was locate the instructions for the field generator. I assembled the generator, putting the fusion coil in its place, and activated it. My house was now protected from the greater youkai of the forest.

I went to the restroom and observed the damage done from Rumia's bite. It was bleeding, but it was only a little bite. I cleaned it off and bandaged it. Then, I went back to the main room to continue unpacking my things. It's time I actually got settled in.


	8. Kappappa, Kappappa

CHAPTER 08 / Kappappa, Kappappa

About a week had passed since the fight with Utsuho. I had removed all of my belongings from the boxes. The computers were set up in the small library offset from the livingroom. The shelves were now filled with books. Not many, though. Books about certain sciences, technological books, and dictionaries, for the most part.

The field generator had been doing its job efficiently. I had not had any issues with intruders, youkai or otherwise.

It had been almost just as long since I had seen or heard from Marisa. I was beginning to wonder what she had been up to lately. Not only that, but I had an idea for a new spellcard. I decided to pay her a visit.

/ / / / /

The walk through the forest was quiet, for once. Rumia hadn't tried to attack me since the last near-death experience I had given her. Aside from that, Marisa wasn't with me, either. This is the quietest it has been in the forest since I had moved here.

/ / / / /

I arrived at the magic shop. The door was open, so I simply walked in. Marisa was talking to someone. "Oh, here he is now, ze." She turned to me. "Razzy! We were just talking about you, ze!"

"I don't know whether I should be proud or afraid," I said.

The new face had been focused on me from the moment I had walked in. She had blue hair and eyes to match. The girl wore a blue dress with many pockets. She was carrying an aquamarine backpack on her back.

She seemed to have taken an interest in me.

I mean a serious interest.

She was staring at me.

Then, she walked closer and stared some more. I was becoming uneasy.

"Uhm, can I help you?" I said, hoping to get something other than this strange investigative stare as a response. She looked up at me briefly, then went around behind me and lifted the back of my shirt. "Hey!? What are you doing!?"

She looked up, seeming dissatisfied. "Where do the batteries go?"

"I'm guessing Marisa told you all about me."

"Yup," the girl in blue answered. "She said you're a robot, sooo...where do the batteries go?"

I shifted my attention to Marisa. "Damn it, I told you I'm a cyborg, not a robot!" Marisa started laughing at how red my face was getting.

"Hey, cyborg guy!" The girl in blue was suddenly demanding my attention. "You think you're more advanced than me?" Was she trying to pick a fight? I hadn't even known her for five minutes...

"What's your issue?" I looked down at her. "And just who are you?"

"I'm the kappa Nitori Kawashiro!" She was looking at me with quite an aggressive expression of determination. She reached into one of her many pockets and brandished a screwdriver. "I wanna take you apart!"

"Whoa, hold on a sec!" I took a step back. She was looking at me as if she were a curious young boy with a screwdriver, staring at a vintage radio. I was part machine; she wanted to see what made me tick.

"Marisa, you wanna do something about your friend, here?" When I looked over to where she was before, she was no longer there. I saw the restroom door was closed. Great. I'm about to get disassembled, and my only help is on the toilet.

Nitori was coming closer. I had to act. No way I was letting her take me apart. I took hold of the atoms surrounding her feet, and held her in place with a firm grip. Not enough to hurt her...just enough to keep her screwdriver-crazy self in one place.

I should have held her hands in place, too. She reached in a pocket and revealed a spellcard.

"Water Sign: 'Kappa's Flash Flood'!"

A flood of water rushed from behind her and hit me with great force. I was swept back a few yards, back into the forest. I could see Nitori's satisfaction in her smile.

Marisa walked outside. "What's with all the noise, ze?" She looked around. "...Did it rain?"

"Call off the kappa!" I yelled from the forest.

"It could have been worse," Nitori snapped. "At least you're waterproof."

/ / / / /

Marisa explained to Nitori that I was a friend of hers (which somehow wasn't said before I arrived, yet she was talking about me then). "Razzy's not for taking apart, ze. He's our ally." Nitori gave a "Hmph," and turned to me. "Fine, I won't take you apart...yet." She smiled and winked at me. I wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Nitori's an engineer, ze," Marisa said to me. "She sees new tech, and has it taken completely apart within five minutes!"

Awesome. Another reason to keep my house locked and shielded. The last thing I need is my recharging station reduced to its base elements. Well, then again, this means I now know someone with mechanical smarts, should I need the help.

Nitori looked at Marisa. "Well, the heater's fixed, anyways; anything else I can do before I go?"

"Nah," said Marisa. "Me and Razzy are about to head out, anyway, ze."

Where'd THAT come from? Usually, I know, somehow or another, when I have plans to go places. I gave a perplexed look at Marisa. "And where are we headed out to, exactly?"

"I told you we'd take a trip to the mansion, didn't I?"

Suddenly, I took interest. I've been wanting to check the mansion out for a while. Then I remembered...

"Hey, I have an idea for a spellcard." I held out a piece of paper. "I want to be able to use more magic energy when manipulating something's surrounding atoms. If I can do that, I can move things faster, hold things down tighter, create stronger barriers, and other things." Marisa nodded, took the paper, and maneuvered around the book stacks to her desk, grabbing a pen and getting to work.

Nitori and I were still at the door. "Well, I should get started on my way back home. I'll be seeing you..." She looked me in the eyes, and smiled. "You can count on that."

/ / / / /

After a short while Marisa was finished. She walked up to me and handed me the spellcard. I read the name aloud:

"Force: 'Electromagnet's Polarity'."

"Yep. It's designed to amplify the atoms' magnetism and shift their polarity, depending on what you plan to do with the target."

She only handed me one, but I felt that I'd need more of these. I had a photo copier at my house. "Do you mind waiting a moment before we go to the mansion?"

/ / / / /

I left for my house, and when I returned to the magic shop, I had ten of the new card. I wanted to try it out. I took one, and focused on a nearby tree.

"Force: 'Electromagnet's Polarity'!"

I held my hand at the tree, two fingers pointed at it. Then, I threw my hand to point upward. The tree was easily torn out of the ground. Marisa applauded. Then, I decided, let's try something new...

The tree was still airborne. I kept my focus on it. I held my hand out, as if I was holding the tree's mass in my palm. Then, I quickly clenched my hand into a tight fist. The atoms surrounding the tree collapsed into the tree itself, causing the tree to implode, showering Marisa and myself in thousands of splinters of wood.

That was enough to expend the card. When the tree imploded, the card dispersed into small fragments that soon withered away.

I looked at Marisa. "I like it." She grinned at me.

"Now that you're done testing it out, let's go! I hear Patchy's got some new books!"


	9. Mind your Manor

CHAPTER 09 / Mind your Manor

Marisa went back inside and grabbed her broom, but hesitated. I saw her set the broom by the door, and go back to the desk. "Hold on a sec, ze. Gotta finish this real quick." She had another piece of paper on her desk. She took a couple minutes to write something on it, then she put the paper in her hat. "Save this for when I really need it, ze."

She met me outside, grabbing her broom on the way out the door. She looked at me. "Ready, ze?" I nodded, and we took off.

/ / / / /

We were flying above the forest. I could see my place further back into the forest. To the right was a clearing. That's the magic shop. Wait...there's another house just west of hers...

"Hey, Marisa," I asked. "Who lives in that house?"

"Oh, Alice lives there, ze. She works with a combination of ventriloquism and magic."

"I see."

Further south, I saw what looked like a small store of some sort. The sign read, "Kourindou". It didn't appear to be a magic shop like Marisa's. In fact, it was so small, I don't know if it had customers often. I'd have to check it out sometime.

/ / / / /

We were coming up on the lake that surrounded the mansion. Suddenly, I felt a cold breeze rush past my ear. I looked down. Several more sharp projectiles came towards Marisa and myself. Something was firing ice at us!

More ice spikes were sent our way. They seemed fairly easy to dodge, though. Whatever was shooting couldn't aim well at long range. Suddenly, an ice spike hit the brush end of Marisa's broom, sending her flying over the front of it.

"Marisa!" I quickly swooped down towards her. The ground was coming up fast. Then, I remembered...duh. I facepalmed. I took hold of Marisa's surrounding atoms and stopped her, about three feet from the ground. I gently placed her on the grass.

"You alright?"

Marisa gave me a grin that said, 'Of course I am!' She held up her hand and caught the broom. That was kinda cool.

/ / / / /

We had decided to walk until we found who or whatever was shooting at us. I believed that the ice was coming from the shore of the lake, which wasn't much further.

We walked around for a bit, soon reaching the lake shore. There, before us, stood a fairy, dressed in blue and white. She had blue hair, and crystallized ice wings frozen to her back, that looked like she fabricated them herself. She gave us an angry look, though I didn't feel very threatened.

"No trespassing!" said the small blue fairy. "This is my lake, and I won't have you taking any of my frogs!"

Marisa must have known the fairy. "Calm down, Cirno...we don't want any of your frogs, ze. We just want to cross the lake."

"And why should eye let you?" She seemed to pronounce 'I' strangely.

"I dunno, ze," Marisa said. "But I have a question." She reached into her apron and pulled out a puzzle cube. All the sides were fixed, except for two. The coloured stickers on a corner block were swapped. "I've been trying to solve this all day, ze! Can you help?"

Surely, this fairy wasn't that stupid-

"No worries, for eye, Cirno, will solve the puzzle!"

I was surprised that Cirno hadn't noticed the obvious fact that the stickers were switched out. The stickers themselves were even offset, tackily stuck onto the squares.

I looked over to Marisa. "What are you-"

"C'mon, while she's distracted, ze!" she whisper-yelled to me. While Cirno had her back turned, blindly rotating the cube's sides trying to get a better result, we quietly took flight across the lake. As we flew, I thought to myself, are all fairies that dumb?

"Cirno's pretty stupid, ze," said Marisa. "Easy to trick. Distract her with a puzzle or a riddle, then just walk around her, ze."

/ / / / /

We reached the mansion side of the lake. The sleeping girl I saw before, on the way to the Hakurei Shrine, was still at the front gate of the mansion. She wasn't asleep, this time. Marisa must have wanted to avoid confronting the gatekeeper, because she was aiming to completely avoid the front entrance. Following Marisa's path, we tried to keep out of sight. We headed for the west wing of the mansion.

"Do you always take the side entrance?" I was beginning to think that she, instead of asking, silently lifts books from this "Patchy" person. She didn't return any answer, only grinned.

We went around the west side of the mansion and stopped at a window in the rear, below the clock tower. The window was locked.

"Think you could open this, ze?"

I was feeling witty. "What's this? The mighty magician Marisa Kirisame, bested by a window lock?"

"Not a chance! Could easily blast the window open, but that'd make too much noise, ze."

"Besides," I replied, "why not take the front door?"

Marisa gave me her trademark grin. "'Cause, we're gonna surprise Patchy!"

"Suuuure."

I manipulated the lock open, and pulled the window open. Marisa and I went inside and touched down in a hallway. The area was lit by sparklamps. I could see the fancy decor-red carpet with golden trim. The walls were a slightly darker shade of red than the carpet. We were in the hallway of the second floor of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Marisa guided me to a stairway. We followed the spiral stairway down to what appeared to be a dining hall. Nobody appeared to be in sight, so we moved through, past all the tables and chairs, past the foyer, and further on down the following corridor.

We continued walking. Eventually, Marisa stopped me.

"What is it?"

"We're here, ze."

"But there's nothing here." I checked my surroundings. All I saw was...wait, there was a seam in the wall...

"Hidden door, ze." She opened the door. I followed her down the small hallway, that led to a set of fancy-looking double doors. The bronze sign above the doors read, 'Voile'. Marisa pushed the doors open and entered. I followed.

Books. More books than I have ever seen in my life. More than Marisa had at her place. We stood on a small balcony, with a stairway to our right, going down. As we walked down the stairs, the shelves on the wall seemed to climb higher. I couldn't possibly fathom how many books were in this library...

A girl was peeking her head around a bookshelf. All I could see was her red hair and an unusual (and presumably useless) pair of wings sprouting from her head. She saw us, then gasped and ducked back behind the shelf. I could hear her running.

"Marisa, I think we've been spotted," I said.

"Indeed, your presence has been made known," a new voice replied, from beyond the bookshelf.


	10. Lavender Flowers

CHAPTER 10 / Lavender Flowers

We were standing in the largest library I had ever seen. The library, belonging to a person-an acquaintance of Marisa's-whom I have yet to meet. But I had a troubling feeling that I was about to.

"You do know, it is illegal to enter someone's dwelling without first acquiring that person's permission." The voice came closer.

Another girl emerged from around the bookshelf. The girl was wearing what would normally be interpreted as nighttime wear-a lavender gown, with a matching cap, which bore a crescent brooch. She had many ribbons in her hair. She had royal purple eyes, which were focused on us. She was carrying a book with no title on the cover. Behind her followed the girl from before. Apparently, she had wings on her back as well as the ones on her head.

The lavender girl spoke. "Marisa Kirisame...did I not explain to you that there would be consequences to breaking into my library?"

"Your library," I said. "So, you must be Patchy."

The girl in the lavender pajamas shifted her gaze from Marisa, to glare at me. "My name is Patchouli Knowledge," she said. "I will not be referred to by such a moniker as you had stated." She gestured to the quiet girl standing by her. "This is my assistant, Koakuma. Now, then...what do I call you, other than 'intruder'?"

"I am Razu Teionhakushi," I told her. "Most everyone calls me 'Raz'."

"Very well, Razu Teionhakushi...now, both of you, explain your business here."

"Just came to borrow some books, ze!"

"You will not be 'borrowing' any more of my books," said Patchouli, "for you have yet to return those which you had borrowed on previous occasions...without permission, I might add."

Suddenly I remembered the lavender ink stamp on one of the books at Marisa's place. PK. Patchouli Knowledge.

"You have ten seconds to vacate these premises before I do away with you."

Marisa just stayed there. I knew what was coming. I made ready for the inevitable battle.

"Time's up." She opened the book she was carrying, and declared.

"Fall Slasher!"

As she declared, she held the open book in one hand, and held her free hand upward. A purple light gathered above her, then split into five. Suddenly, the lights began to collect matter, shaping five metal Okizeme swords. They were all aimed in our direction. "Now is your final opportunity to escape!"

Marisa drew a spellcard from her pouch; I drew two. I couldn't tell what she had drawn, but I was holding two cards that I have yet to use. Their illustrations and their titles was all I had to go on as far as their usage. I had a good idea of how to use these two. I held the first one up.

"Transient Skip!"

My force maneuverability speed had been increased ten-fold by the card. The spell's effect would probably last for five minutes. I levitated an inch from the floor, then moved, at an unfathomable speed, around and behind Patchouli. It seemed almost as if I had teleported; I had moved so fast. Patchouli heard me as I lifted the second card in an attempt to declare and use a combination attack.

"Carbon-Fibre Blade:...!"

She turned around, looking surprised, but otherwise unfaltered. All five of her blades shifted to aim at me. I continued to declare the card.

"...'Ethereal Edge'!"

A chunk of the tile floor, and the concrete below, lifted from the ground. I quickly shifted the carbon atoms into the shape of a broadsword, crushing the leftover tile and concrete into dust. As I took hold of the hilt, Patchouli threw her hand down and aimed toward me, sending the blades after me, one by one. The first blade missed my leg by mere inches. I jumped over the second. I put up Ethereal Edge to block the third. However, the fourth one, which was coming right after the third, grazed my arm. The momentum of the blade pushed me into a slight spin as I fell. Ethereal Edge was thrown backward and stuck into the tile floor a few feet behind me, where it stayed briefly before crumbling into carbon dust. I looked up at the last blade, which was still pointing directly at me. I could see Patchouli's face, which seemed to show little emotion-she had been wearing that expression almost the entire time. She looked down at me coldly.

"Do you have any last words before I transform you into a mere mess for the maid to clean?"

I saw, behind her, Marisa was getting ready to declare her spell.

"Just one: DUCK!"

Patchouli looked at me, puzzled, then turned around to find Marisa mid-declaration.

"Love Sign: 'Master Spark'!"

Patchouli reacted quickly, turning to another page in her book. As she called out the new spell, the remaining blade above her head shattered into metal shards and fell to the floor.

"Emerald City!"

She threw her palm to the floor, causing a wall of emerald pillars to rise from the tiles, in front of her. The pillars blocked the entirety of Marisa's spell. She appeared dumbstruck.

I seized the opportunity to get up and run towards Patchouli. I reached for another card as I ran toward her. Patchouli then turned around, and pointed at the floor below me. She declared another spell from her book as she did this.

"Winter Element!"

The ground quickly turned cold-blue, then shot up in a geyser of frigid water, sending me upward, then back to the tile floor. I landed flat on my back. The impact knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't move.

"Raz!" Marisa called out to me, then glared at Patchouli. "Patchy's gonna wish she didn't do that, ze!" She pulled another card. Patchouli flipped to another page in her book. I started to get up. Suddenly, I felt something hit me in the back of my head. Hard. I fell back to the floor.

My vision was fading. I could see Marisa getting ready to use her spell, but something out of my line of sight seemed to steal her attention. Patchouli declared her spell.

"Sun Sign: 'Royal Flare'!"

I fell unconscious before the spell hit.


	11. A Brief Detention

CHAPTER 11 / A Brief Detention

I was hearing voices.

"I could have handled them without your assistance."

"I was merely keeping more of a mess from being made."

I was starting to come to. I recognized the first voice; that was Patchouli. But I couldn't quite figure out who the second person was.

When I had my vision back, I only saw the heavy steel door shutting and locking behind Patchouli and the other mysterious character. The room I was in was dark. I could barely see.

Right then, I remembered. Was Marisa alright?

At that moment, I heard someone stir. "Marisa?" Marisa seemed to have just woke up as well. She was coughing on the other side of the room.

"Yeah, I'm here, ze."

"What happened?"

"Patchy got me while I was distracted, ze," Marisa said.

"Where are we?" It was quite dark. I couldn't tell any detail about the room we were in.

"My guess, ze, probably a holding cell of some sort, in the basement area. Dunno where exactly, though." I heard her stand up. "Brace yourself, ze, I'm going to light up the room a bit."

A moment passed, and then I could see. Marisa was using magic energy to create a small orb of light at her fingertip. She touched the light to the brim of her hat, making it stay there.

The room we were in was certainly a holding cell. Bare concrete floors and walls, no windows, and a steel door. Marisa went on ahead trying to pick the lock.

After about five minutes, she hadn't made any progress. I reached for my spellcards. I was gonna simply blast the door. I reached for the leather pouch-

My cards were gone. Damn, they must have taken them while we were knocked out. My guess is that Marisa didn't have hers, either.

Marisa stopped trying at the lock, and stepped back. She stood there for a second. Then, she took off her oversized hat-hatlight and all-and reached inside.

"What," I said, "you gonna pull an escape route out of your hat?"

"Precisely, ze!" She pulled out the piece of paper. It was a spellcard. "Call me crazy prepared, ze!" She took the card between two fingers in her right hand while she checked her pockets for something else. She pulled out some sort of octagonal object with a hole in the center. She held it in her left palm, aiming the hole at the door. She took a moment to charge. "Haven't tested this yet. Stand back, ze; this might not go as planned!"

I stood back, as she had asked. This was going to be good.

"Magicannon: 'Final Spark'!"

The hole in the center of the tool she was holding was emanating an immense light. Then, it fired, creating what started to be a widespread beam like Master Spark's. It came in contact with the door. Suddenly, the beam thinned out and closed, and suddenly exploded. Marisa and I were both thrown back against the far end of the cell. My eyes were blinded by the flash and my ears were ringing. My head hitting the wall didn't help.

Upon recollecting my senses, I got up and checked to see if Marisa was alright. She looked up at me. "Don't worry. Didn't hit the wall too hard, ze." She picked up her hat, which still had its light on the brim. After replacing the hat onto her head, we checked the door. I simply touched the door. It fell out into the corridor. "Well, at least it dislodged the door, ze!"

/ / / / /

Looking around outside the cell, we could see a few others-still with intact doors, but with nobody inside. Since there was light out here, Marisa saw no more need for her hatlight, and dismissed it. On the far end of the corridor, there was another door. That must be the exit. We made our way to the door. Marisa opened it slightly, and peeked outside, only to be knocked backwards, back inside.

"What's out there?"

"A very angry maid, ze," said Marisa, looking up at me from the floor.


	12. Timeless: Part One

CHAPTER 12 / Timeless: Part One

The maid threw the door open and entered the corridor.

I recognized her. She was the other person from before. She wore a standard maid's outfit, except instead of black, it was a faded navy blue colour. She had silver hair and cold, faded blue-grey eyes. She was holding a throwing knife in her hand.

She didn't seem to want to waste time with banter. She ran towards me aiming to perform a sort of melee-knife attack. She got up really close to me, and, before I could move, punctured my arm with her blade. Lucky, however-she was aiming for my chest, but I moved in an attempt to dodge.

I kicked the killer maid in the side, creating some distance between us. I reached for my spellcard pouch-oh, right. I didn't have them.

She stopped and looked at me. Then, she took something from her pocket. It was my leather spellcard pouch. "Looking for these?"

I scowled. No doubt she had Marisa's deck as well.

Marisa was just now getting up. Without her spellcards, she was just a standard human. Only magic thing she could do was fly. I, on the other hand, had an advantage, unbeknownst to my enemy. My carbon atom manipulation didn't necessarily need spellcards to work.

She had gotten out three more knives. Marisa thought she could try and tackle her and get her cards. She started to run toward the maid, who saw her coming, and threw the three knives at Marisa. I grabbed Marisa's collar and pulled her out of the way, and stopped the knives in midair so that they would not hit me. Marisa was sent off-balance and fell to the ground.

"Idiot!" I shouted to Marisa. "What the hell were you thinking!?" She just stayed there and looked at me. Without her spellcards, Marisa wouldn't stand a chance against her. "Stay back. I'll get our spellcards."

I turned back toward the maid. "So, what is your-" She wasn't there.

"Raz, watch out, ze!"

The blue-clad maid was now behind me. A knife was poking my back, at the base of my spine. Another was at my throat. When she spoke, her voice was cold, yet somehow polite.

"My name is Sakuya Izayoi," she told me. "I am the chief maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, under order of my lady Remilia Scarlet. And you, Razu Teionhakushi, and your friend Marisa Kirisame, are trespassing on my lady's property." She pressed the blades against me. I arched. I couldn't do anything. Sakuya had me.

Marisa kicked Sakuya's feet from under her. She didn't expect it. She went down, but her knife scraped down my back as she fell. I moved away, paying no attention to the blood trails on the floor from my arm and back. I looked at Marisa.

"You're insane."

"I know, ze."

Sakuya was not pleased. She got back up, and looked at Marisa, now with red glowing eyes. I didn't see where they came from, but she suddenly had four knives in each hand. Then she disappeared. Where'd she go?

"Careful, ze! Sakuya can stop time and move around while time is stopped around her!"

Sakuya was standing behind us. I turned around, only to find a barrage of eight knives coming my way. I stopped them in midair like I did the ones before. Sakuya appeared impressed by this. I was even more pleased. I had projectiles now.

I started sending the knives her way, one after another. She danced and dodged around them. She was toying with me. I didn't think I was going to hit her at all, since she could simply stop time and walk around the knives in still time.

Marisa picked up a knife from the ground and tried to throw it. She hit Sakuya, but only with the round end of the throwing knife, and THAT was only because Sakuya didn't see it coming. Wow, Marisa was absolutely lost without her magic.

"I said stay back!" I forced Marisa back down the corridor, and sent her back into the cell, and manipulated the steel door upright. I warped the steel so that it would hold in place. Marisa beat on the steel door, while I was left facing Sakuya on my own. That's how I wanted it.

I stood there before Sakuya. We both waited for the other to make a move. I grinned, and urged her hand.

"Ladies first."


	13. Timeless: Part Two

CHAPTER 13 / Timeless: Part Two

I urged her hand. "Ladies first," I said.

She smiled politely. "How chivalrous. I'll try to make your death less painful, then."

She came at me and swung a fast kick, aimed for my temple. I ducked, and her heel skimmed my head. I reached my hand up to catch her leg, and threw my arm to trip her other leg from under her. She fell onto the floor. I prepared to bring down my heel onto her stomach, but she rolled out from under me, rolled backward and landed on her feet. I saw the small belt around her thigh that acted as a knife holster.

I saw one of her throwing knives nearby on the floor. I grabbed it and moved quickly toward her. She grabbed another one and used it to block mine. With her free hand, she pulled another knife and swung for my abdomen. I arched my body, moving my waist just far away for her to cut my shirt clean through, barely grazing the skin. I delivered a swift kick to her midriff, pushing her away.

"You're not bad," she said, smiling at me.

I nodded, as if to say, 'you're not that bad, either.'

/ / / / /

Marisa was still pounding on the steel door. She really wanted to help me. Was I wrong to keep her from my side when she wanted to assist?

/ / / / /

Sakuya ran for me, then pulled a quick blade and threw it in my direction. I stopped it in midair. "Gonna have to show me some new tricks, maid!"

As I said that, she had disappeared, and reappeared behind me. A spellcard was standing in midair in front of her, frozen in time.

"Perfect Maid!"

A circle of knives was around me, all aimed at my waist. They stayed there, as if frozen in time. I was too surprised to react fast enough. I dove over one side of the knife ring, but not before catching four knives in the lower half of my leg. I yelled in pain before crashing to the floor.

She stood there, smiling, with a hint of satisfaction in her eyes. I was injured and on the floor, bleeding even more.

"You're making a mess. I should wrap this up so it doesn't get any worse down here."

I looked up, and gave a small laugh. "Is that your best?"

I made sure to keep my focus long enough to hold onto the blade I stopped before. It had fallen to the floor, but I was still manipulating it. I swung my arm up at Sakuya, and the blade arched across, following my arm's movement, cutting her deep in the shin. She started to bleed pretty quickly. She couldn't keep her weight on her leg anymore, and fell.

"Doesn't...feel too good, does it...?" My leg was throbbing. Four knives were still sticking out of it. I did the only thing I thought to do at the moment. I pulled them out, one excruciating blade at a time. Each time I pulled a blade from my leg, an arch of blood followed from my leg to the tip of the weapon. I cringed in pain after removing each one.

I stood up. My leg was bleeding, but the wound wasn't terrible. The pain was agonizing, but I would bear it. I looked down to the immobilized maid in the floor.

She showed a furious scowl. "You think this is over!? I'm not through!" She was barking at me like an infuriated child that wasn't getting her way.

"It is over. Even though you can still stop time around you, you can't stand. You are a fixed target."

Sakuya looked down. "You're right. How can I be so arrogant?..."

I took my and Marisa's spellcards from her, and walked back down to the cell where I had locked Marisa inside. She wasn't beating on the door anymore. I unbent the edges so the door would move, and removed it, standing it up against the concrete wall in the corridor. Marisa was sitting there, on the floor by the wall.

"Marisa, are you okay?"

She slapped me.

I was stunned for a couple seconds, and the room went dead silent. Then, I turned toward her.

"What the hell was THAT for!?"

She was yelling. "What right do you have to force me to sit here while you fight her by yourself, ze!? I was only trying to help!"

"'Help'? You threw a knife and hit her with the wrong end!"

"What else was I supposed to do!? She had our spellcards! I was trying to get them back, ze!"

"You didn't have anything to defend yourself in case she attacked you! You could have gotten your ass beat!"

"At least I had a plan! Why the hell is it such a problem!?"

"BECAUSE I WAS WORRIED THAT YOU WOULD GET HURT!"

"I-" She started to say something, but what I just said had stopped her cold.

I was speaking softly now. "You could have been hurt...I was worried...scared..." Tears were welling up in my eyes. I looked through them, into Marisa's. She was beginning to tear up as well.

"I don't want you to get hurt. I don't want you to die...I don't know what I'd do without you by my side... I..."

Marisa looked at me, as I looked at her.

"I...love you, Marisa." A tear finally rolled off my cheek and hit the floor.

Marisa was crying now. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve, then looked back at me, now smiling.

She then stepped closer and hugged me, wrapping her arms around my neck and resting her head upon my shoulder. I held her.

She then looked up at me, blushing, with tears rolling from her watery golden eyes, and smiled.

"I love you too, Raz..." We both stayed there, holding each other, smiling.

"I'm glad that I am with you, ze..." She leaned toward me.

"Me too." I closed my eyes.

Our lips met; we kissed.

/ / / / /

After giving Marisa her deck, we proceeded out of the cell. Sakuya was gone. My guess is that she had stopped time and hobbled away, or even crawled. She would now probably be informing Remilia of our escape.

"Marisa," I said, as I took her hand, "we're leaving. Let's go."

Marisa and I walked to the door at the end of the corridor. I didn't know what would happen beyond this door, or even if I would get out alive. But I was going to make damn sure Marisa escaped safely.

I took Marisa's hand, and opened the door.


	14. Stolen Precious Things: Part One

CHAPTER 14 / Stolen Precious Things: Part One

We had to make a choice.

The dungeon corridor Marisa and I had just escaped from was through a door in dead-center of the hallway. Both directions looked rather dark. There were sparklamps going down both ways, but after a way down, in both directions, it became too dark to see the end. We decided to go left.

As we walked down the long hallway, Marisa was writing something on a piece of paper. It looked the size of a spellcard. I asked her what she was doing.

"It's a surprise," she told me. She smiled, and gave me a merry little "ze !" I laughed.

/ / / / /

After what seemed like ten minutes of walking, we came upon a large steel vault door. And when I say "vault door", I mean something similar to a bank vault. No doorknob, just a large round crank.

"Well, we might as well go in, ze," said Marisa. "No point in going all this way just to turn back around." She was right. Besides, beyond this door might be the nearest exit. I reached out my hand, and took hold of one of the spokes on the crank. It was hard to move. I tried with both hands. I couldn't move it.

I stepped back, and took out my spellcards. I looked for the appropriate spell. After a brief moment of searching, I found the card I wanted. I put the rest of the deck back into the pouch, and held up the card.

"Force: 'Electromagnet's Polarity'!"

With the spell in effect, I manipulated the crank's surrounding atoms. After a moment of trying, the crank gave off a loud 'CLANK!', and became easier to move. I rotated it a full three revolutions before it stopped. The door became loose with nothing holding it closed, so I opened it the rest of the way, and walked in with Marisa.

This room was dark, humid, and quiet. There were a few areas of this large room that were lit by dim red sparklamps. Marisa and I walked a little further inside.

The door slammed shut. I could hear the crank rotating and sealing the door. I did not like this...

I heard someone giggling. I couldn't see anyone or anything, and it was creepy. Marisa clinged to me as we both heard footsteps circling around us. Then we heard her giggling again. It sounded like the giggle of an amused eleven-year-old girl.

"Who's there?" I called out into the darkness. "Show yourself to me!"

I heard something land in front of me; the jingling of something like crystals on a chandelier. Right then, I could see fourteen differently-coloured prisms, glowing brightly, dangling from what appeared to be iron rods. These were attached to her back-false wings. I saw the blood red glow of her eyes piercing the dark. She appeared very short, however...perhaps three feet tall. She was looking up at me.

"That's not fair...you should come down here so I can look at you."

She jumped up, grabbed my shirt collar, and pulled me down to her level, taking my legs out from under me. Marisa came into view as she stepped towards us out of the darkness. She saw me being held by the collar, and, in a panic, charged. The girl holding me heard her approach, and quickly turned and struck her chest with her iron rod wing. Two of the prisms stabbed straight into her. Marisa's facial expression showed how much pain she was in. The false-winged girl tore her wing prisms out of Marisa's chest, and I watched her fall lifelessly to the floor.

"MARISA!"


	15. Stolen Precious Things: Part Two

CHAPTER 15 / Stolen Precious Things: Part Two

"MARISA!"

Tears instantly flooded my eyes as I watched her lay motionless, face down, on the floor. The short girl with the strange wings still had me by the collar.

"Who, or rather what, are you?"

"I am Flandre Scarlet." She licked her lips as she told me her name, as if I appeared tasty to her. "I am Remilia's younger sister."

I was too much in shock of the thought of Marisa's current state to think of anything else to say. Could Marisa really be...

Marisa started coughing. She was struggling to get up. She coughed again, and spat blood onto the floor.

"Marisa!" I yelled to her. "Stay down!"

She couldn't get up anyway. She was too weak to even keep her weight up on her hands and knees.

I turned to Flandre. I was furious. I picked her up by her throat. She was holding onto my hand with both of hers, flailing while I held her up. My left eye was glowing as bright red as hers were. I was going to make her regret what she had done to Marisa. I was going to make her regret her BIRTH.

Flandre let go of my arm, and held her hand open. Suddenly, my arm's center felt stressed, tightened. A black-red collection of power was made visible in her palm. She clenched her fist, crushing the ball of magic power.

"Kyu!"

My arm imploded.

The force of the destruction sent me into a lopsided spin, backwards. A combination of blood and twisted metal was sprawled all over the floor. I yelled in pain as I fell backward and hit the floor.

Flandre looked at me, glowing, quite literally, with confusion. "Huh? This stuff doesn't come out of humans..."

Marisa saw what had happened to me, and was, with all her might, trying to crawl towards me. She was streaking blood along where she crawled, leading from a dark red puddle from where she was before. She was in pain, bleeding from the chest and mouth, and crying. And there I was, with a missing arm. We were battered, broken, and beaten. Marisa eventually stopped crawling towards me and fainted from blood loss. My vision was fading in my human eye. My prosthetic left eye flickered with static. Silent alarms were going off in my head telling me what I already knew. 'DANGER: HIGH BLOOD LOSS.' 'WARNING: RIGHT ARM DESTROYED.' 'WARNING: OCULAR PORT L UNRESPONSIVE.'

I ignored the harsh pain and stood up, facing Flandre. She watched me.

"Well, since you're still standing, let's play some more!"

My goal was in sight. I was going to destroy her. My brain was reflexively sending the signal to my right arm to reach for my spellcards...which hurt...a lot. I cringed. Correcting myself, I reached around myself with my left hand and drew a spellcard from the pouch.

She took a card from her pocket, looked at it for a second, then held it up.

"Taboo: 'Lævateinn'!"

The card burned, and the flame expanded to form a sort of double-ended staff. I held my card forward with my left hand.

"10,000 Decibels: 'Bass Blast'!"

Instead of firing with both hands like usual, I was firing with only one, which halved the effect. Not only that, but the recoil almost sent me into a spin, causing me to veer off target. The beam contacted with the wall, crushing the large stones that made up the far wall. As I corrected myself by moving the beam towards her, she was able to keep from getting hit.

The stub that once was my arm was still bleeding. My vision was fading, and I was running out of time. My left eye was barely glowing, and the static almost completely hid my vision through it. I felt weak. I took one more card from my pouch. I looked at it, and was surprised. I had forgotten about this card.

Marisa told me to only use it as a last resort. I said to myself, "I guess this qualifies..."

"Intelligent Dance: 'Subsonic Fracture'!"

I felt a sudden surge, bringing back my strength. My prosthetic eye started working again, and on the display showed a percentage count, labeled 'CRITICAL MASS', currently showing '0%'. My eye glowed brighter than it ever has, and now my human eye was glowing equally as bright. No, my entire body was emanating a crimson aura. I was the brightest thing in the room. I unconsciously started to levitate until I was in dead center of the room.


	16. Stolen Precious Things: Part Three

CHAPTER 16 / Stolen Precious Things: Part Three

Flandre didn't know what was happening, and didn't seem to care. I didn't move; I was still floating there in the middle of the room. She flew up to me, holding Lævateinn like a baseball bat, and I was the supposed ball. The staff sparked and caught fire, and extended in length to become an excessively long flaming sword. She kept charging at me, and soon got within range. She swung.

I don't know how I did it, but I moved out of the way. So fast, in fact, that you could still for a moment see the red glow from my body, where I USED to be floating. The overly extended weapon of hers ended up destroying an overhead chandelier, which came crashing down to the concrete floor below.

Flandre was surprised. She hadn't seen such speed before. "How did you do that?"

I didn't speak.

The demon child's face showed anger. "You should talk when you're spoken to!" She pointed at me. "Show some respect! I am the sister of the head of the mansion, you know!"

I stayed there, floating quietly.

"Fine! Don't speak! I just hope you make more noise when being disemboweled!" She pulled out another card from her pocket.

"Forbidden Barrage: 'Starbow Break'!"

She threw her palm out in my direction, and, out of it, fired hundreds of assorted coloured orbs of energy. They were all moving at an alarming rate, in my direction. Yet, because of Subsonic Fracture, I was able to weave myself through each and every one. Each energy orb passed me and collided with the wall, destroying more of the stone wall, showing the dirt behind it.

Subsonic Fracture was feeding me more and more energy. As time progressed, the percentage on my HUD would slowly rise, at about a rate of .5% per second. I was currently at 56%.

I thought that since I had this energy, I should use it while it lasted to get Marisa out of here and to safety. I flew over to the area of wall that Starbow Break had destroyed. I aimed at it, at an upward 45-degree angle, so that my attack would surface above ground. Then, I fired an intense Bass Blast-like beam. Just then, I noticed. As I used magic attacks, the percentage would go down. I was not sure what would happen once critical mass was reached, so I took this as a relief.

I fired the beam until I could see moonlight shining through. I could hear thunder outside.

'CRITICAL MASS: 30%.'

Another counter was displayed. 'REMAINING: 2.'

I went to retrieve Marisa. Flandre beat me to her, and blocked me.

"No!" the young vampire yelled. "I'm not letting you leave! Try to and I will kill her!"

Subsonic Fracture altered my voice. "TRY IT, AND I WILL KILL YOU."

Flandre didn't back down. Instead, she swung her claws at my face. I moved back, and fired a beam at her. It was so sudden that it had actually caught her off guard, and hit her square in the stomach. The beam pushed her back considerably far. My percentage counter lowered again, and the 'remaining' counter dropped down to one. I see...so each time I use offensive magic, this drops. What happens when it hits zero?

Before Flandre could recollect herself, I took control of the prism shards on her wings. I angled them all at the wall behind her, and forced them into it, rendering Flandre's wings stuck into the wall, and leaving Flandre herself suspended. She struggled to free herself, but couldn't.

I placed my palm onto the ground, and blasted a bass wave into the ground. The wave shook and cracked the ground. One large fault cracked along the floor, toward Flandre. The crack hit the wall, and went up it, and severed the area of wall she was attached to, from the rest of the wall, and split the slab of stone down the middle.

'REMAINING: 0.' 'WARNING: RELAPSE.'

My newly found energy was leaving me. I had to finish the job. I took control of the two slabs of wall separately-each of Flandre's wings attached to separate parts of the wall-and moved them apart from each other. Her wings were being pulled. Flandre screamed. The walls became harder to move. I forced them harder, making Flandre's cries of agonizing pain louder. Eventually, her left wing was pulled out of her back, and Flandre hung helplessly in pain by her right wing. Blood poured from her back, and dripped from the severed wing.

My magic energy had nearly completely left me. I struggled to walk over to the lone wing, and took hold of the formerly connected end, and yanked it out of the wall. Then, I turned to Flandre, who was still struggling to free herself. I walked up to her, with the iron rod wing in my hand, the sharp prism shards jingling with each step. I stood in front of her, holding the severed wing by my side.

"Tell me, Flandre Scarlet..." I looked at her. "Have you ever loved someone?"

Half conscious, she answers, with tears coming down her cheeks. "I...I love my big sister Remi..."

"So you do love someone. Tell me something more." I paused. "What would you do if someone tried to hurt Remilia?"

She looked at me. "...I would kill them."

"You would, you say?..." I pulled the iron wing back, and used the last of my force manipulation abilities to straighten the shards. I looked briefly at Marisa, barely alive in the floor, slowly bleeding to death. Then, I turned back to Flandre. "Then you understand why I have to do this."

I impaled Flandre with her own severed wing. She fell limp and stared blankly at the floor, passed out from the shear pain of it entering and going completely through her stomach.

The energy withdrawal began to kick in. Everything hurt. This must be the side effect of using that spellcard, Subsonic Fracture. I wanted to pass out, wanted to rest...but I needed to get Marisa help. I walked to her, as painful as it was to walk right then, and kneeled in front of her. I shook her shoulder. "Marisa...wake up...please..."

She looked up at me, barely conscious. She started to speak, but blood spurted out of her chest and mouth when she tried.

"Don't talk...we have to leave. I'm going to carry you up that hole. Hold onto me..."

She climbed up onto my back, and I carried her to the hole leading up to the outside. I used my only hand to pull myself upward.

Slowly, I climbed, carrying Marisa on my back, making only a little progress at a time. My strength was leaving me. After fifteen minutes of climbing, I was close enough to the outside to feel rain falling from the opening.

Once I reached the surface, I let Marisa down on the ground. My vision was fading again. My left eye gave up halfway up the hole. I layed there, next to Marisa, in the rain.

We both fell unconscious in the Scarlet Devil Mansion courtyard.


	17. Slow Recovery

CHAPTER 17 / Slow Recovery

I woke up in some place other than where I had passed out, and instantly knew it. I quickly sat up. That was a mistake. Everything began to hurt horribly all over again. I collapsed back onto the couch.

Without sitting up, I looked around the room, examined my surroundings. Soon, I realized-I was in Hakurei Shrine.

Reimu entered the room. I turned my head to look at her from the couch. I was still in tremendous pain, and I was weak. Not only physically, but I haven't been to the recharging station in a while. I couldn't see my charge status, because my left eye had completely stopped working.

"Ma...Ma, Marisa..."

Reimu looked at me. "She was in pretty bad shape when I found you two. You weren't any better. I'm actually surprised you're awake."

"...Where...is she..."

"She's in the bedroom, resting on my bed. You're on the couch since I only have one bed." She look out the window. "I could see a red beam coming from the mansion, and went to look into it. Once I got past the gate guard, I found you and Marisa laying next to a hole in the courtyard." She paused briefly. "I went down the hole, and saw blood all over the floor inside, not to mention the seven holes stabbed into a split section of the wall. What happened?"

"...F...Fla...Flandre..."

"Flandre!?" She appeared surprised. "You have no idea how lucky you two are, even in the state you're in," she said. "But when I went down there, Flandre wasn't there."

So, she had, in fact, survived. I figured as such. She seemed like the hard-to-kill type.

"Anyway," Reimu continued, "I was able to treat the wounds done to the human parts of your body. But your arm..."

I groaned. "I'll...build another one. It looks like my eye is malfunctioning too. I'll have to repair that as well."

I sat up. My body ached, but I had gotten used to it. "Take me to Marisa."

"She's resting in the other room; I don't think you should-"

"Please!" I really wanted to see her. I wanted to see for myself that she was alright.

Reimu paused for a moment, then smiled. "All right," she said. "Come with me."

/ / / / /

Reimu showed me to the room where Marisa was recovering. I was overcome with relief. I was afraid I would lose her after that strike she took in the chest.

At that moment, Marisa awakened. She looked around, then looked at me. She gave a weak smile.

"That was fun...let's do it again..."

I smiled. "You're insane." I almost went to hug her, but I realized that her chest was bandaged up, and moving her probably wouldn't be the best of ideas. I sat by the bed and touched her cheek with my left hand. She must have suddenly realized that I was missing an arm, because her eyes suddenly got really wide.

"Are...you alright...?"

I looked at my stub. "Yeah, I...kinda became left-handed."

She reached for it.

"Hold on a sec-ow, ow, ow, ow, open nerves, open nerves..." The area where the arm used to be was still very sensitive.

"Oh, sorry!..."

"It's alright, don't worry..." I smiled at her. "Besides, I can build another arm at home."

"What happened to Flandre?"

I paused before answering. "She's...alive. I was able to neutralize her so I could get you outside."

Reimu walked in. "Lunch is ready. I'm sure you're both hungry."

My internal clock wasn't working. I didn't know it was already past noon.

"Mind if I eat in here beside Marisa?"

"That's fine," she said, and went to get our lunch.


	18. Refreshment & Repair

CHAPTER 18 / Refreshment & Repair

After staying at Reimu's place for four days to heal, we said our goodbyes, and I headed home to repair my arm and eye. Marisa went with me.

/ / / / /

While I was searching through parts, Marisa spoke. "Thank you again for saving me, ze."

"It was no big deal. It's not like I was gonna leave you there, no matter how hard it already was to climb up that hole." I smiled. "And it was pretty damn hard, mind you, because, in case you haven't noticed, I just recently became left-handed. You can thank Flandre for that!" Marisa laughed.

/ / / / /

I had a replacement eye that I was able to apply in no time. After about an hour's worth of work, I had a new arm put together. I had also pieced together a female-end joint base to place into my right shoulder, so that this arm would be interchangeable, should it ever need replacement.

Next was the hard part. I had to attach the base to my shoulder and connect the nerves to it. "Marisa," I called. "I'm gonna need your help with this."

"'Sup, ze?"

"Help me attach this. I'm holding it in place; all you have to do is turn that three times and push."

"That looks like it's going to hurt," Marisa said.

"Well, honestly, it hurts just holding it here, since there are pins stabbing into my shoulder, connecting the nerves."

Marisa paused for a moment, then put her hand on the handle that was placed into a large screw. She twisted. It didn't tickle. The feeling of the needles stabbing into my nerves grew into an intense pain as the large screw tightened the base into place. The pain grew worse and worse with each turn. I was gripping the end of the table with my left hand. After one final loud 'click,' the base was locked into place. I sighed my relief.

"There's one more thing I need you to do for me." I gestured to the arm on the table. "Take this, and just jam it into the socket."

"Wait, really? Just shove it in there, ze?" She was surprised at how simple that sounded. I nodded.

"The connectors in the socket will meet with the arm once it's pushed in," I told her. "It's not going to feel too good right away, so I'd like to get it done with already. Are you gonna help me, or am I doing it myself?"

"Alright, alright, geez..." Marisa took the arm and held the shoulder-end up, aligning it with the socket. And, sure enough, she jammed it in. It didn't feel well at all. The nerves connected, and all I felt was pain. I yelled, and Marisa jumped back, startled.

"Are you alright, ze?"

I held my shoulder, and tried moving the new arm. "I will be. I'm gonna go take a shower. Make yourself at home while you wait."

/ / / / /

After the ordeal at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, my clothes were torn to shreds and stained with blood.

The shower water felt good on my skin. The dried blood, sweat, and dirty clothing was making me smell awful, and it was a tremendous relief to get cleaned up.

After my shower, I put on a towel and walked out of the restroom. Marisa looked at me, and almost instantly turned red. I laughed, and continued to the bedroom to get new clothes.

I opened my closet and picked out a new pair of black pants and a black undershirt. I didn't wanted to throw my jacket away, even though it was tattered to hell. I threw it and the torn-off sleeve in the wash. I'd reattach the sleeve later.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the front door. I grabbed my belt and fastened it, and went to see who it was. I took the knob and opened the door.

The newcomer grabbed me by the throat before she spoke.

"I knew I would find you here."


	19. Rizu

CHAPTER 19 / Rizu

I knew her. This girl, standing in my doorway, who was holding me by my throat.

Marisa jumped up from her seat. "Hey, let him go, ze!"

The girl looked over to Marisa. "Now now, we shouldn't get so worked up!" She threw up her free hand in Marisa's direction, and Marisa was suddenly thrown across the room and into my copier, destroying it.

I held my palm against her stomach and sent a force into her, causing her to drop me, and fall backward.

I wrung my hand around my throat. "Rizu! Why are you here?"

Rizu got back up and began floating before me. "You know very well why I am here, Razu!" She looked at me with crimson eyes, and gripped and lifted my body with an unseen force, and threw me at the same wall that Marisa was laying next to.

"Who the hell IS that, ze?"

"My sister, Rizu. Rizu Teionhakushi."

Marisa was awed. She had no idea that I had a sibling. I never mentioned her.

Rizu flew closer and looked down at us. She had long black hair, and crimson eyes, just like mine. She was wearing loose-fitting Tripp pants with random belts, zippers, chains, and metal rings, along with a black low-cut tank top that was short enough to show off her midriff. And in her left eye, was the three-parted circle emblem. This unique trait was hereditary to the Teionhakushi bloodline. The symbol was in my prosthetic eye, but that's only because I had it made to match the eye I lost.

She looked sternly at me, as if I had done something wrong. "You remember what had happened. Don't act like you have forgotten!"

I stood up. "Do not say anything more!"

Marisa looked up at me. "Raz, what's going on, ze?"

Rizu looked at Marisa, and displayed a sinister grin. "He hasn't told you?" Marisa looked confused.

"Told me...?"

"Razu hasn't told you how he has killed off thousands of people and evaporated an entire city in a nuclear explosion?"

"What?... No...no, Raz wouldn't do that! He wouldn't-"

"But he did! Tell her, Brother! Tell her how irresponsibly destructive you are!"

Marisa looked at me. I owed her an explanation.

I hesitated. I did not want to do this. "...Want me to tell you why I moved here? To Gensokyo?"

Marisa didn't say anything.

"...I moved here because I no longer had a home. Everything I had ever known or cared for was gone. The entire city, in which I had lived, was decimated in an instant... Do you know what the cause was?"

Marisa didn't speak. She was afraid of the answer.

"...It was me."


	20. The Accident

CHAPTER 20 / The Accident

Marisa obviously didn't like what she was hearing. She had just discovered the man she loved had destroyed an entire city, killing thousands of people.

I continued.

"Winter of last year, I lived in a far off country, in a city where technology was abundant. Despite all the technology, we were running fairly low on power sources. As the city's highest technician, I took charge of creating a new power source.

"Spring came around, and with help of friends, other technicians, and a few scientists, I had built a device that would solve the problem of the lack of energy. Rizu helped with it some as well. The project cost about five million in the city's funds. The power source was..." I sighed heavily. I didn't want to say it. "...Nuclear energy.

"The device itself, was four large fusion coils, empowered by constant nuclear reactions within a dome in the center, which housed the core, which could be interpreted as a small sun. The device itself, was my greatest work ever.

"But, something went wrong."

/ / / / /

Suddenly, the core was depressurizing. The nuclear reactions within started to spread out, and eventually destroyed the protective dome. Alarms were blaring. If the core reached critical mass, the entire city would be taken out.

I yelled to a friend of mine who was helping me with the project. "Oni! Status report! What's the screen saying?"

"The meters are going berserk!" he shouted back. "I don't think we can save it! We have to get out of here now!"

The glass around the four fusion coils shattered. I yelled over the klaxon alarms to my personal secretary. "Saya! Get the mayor on the phone; tell him to order an evacuation of the city immediately! Right after that, I want you to leave and get as far away from here as possible!"

"Yes sir!" She ran to the nearest phone and dialed the mayor.

"Everyone else! Get out, now!"

Technicians and scientists were flooding out the doors and headed out. Saya had gotten off the phone with the mayor and had followed the others out. Rizu was helping that day, and she was in the crowd heading out the door as well. Oni stayed.

"Oni! I said leave!"

"You know as well as I do that if this thing goes, we all do, whether we make it to a shelter or not," he said. "There's no escaping the explosion. I'm staying here to do what I can to keep it from reaching critical mass. You go!"

I didn't plan to leave, either. "No, I'm staying too." One of the coils exploded and bursted into flames. The core would overload soon. "Get to that terminal over there; see if you can divert the power flow!"

"The system's locked up! I can't do anything! Shit!" Oni slammed his fist into the terminal.

The only thing I could think to do was to attempt to contain the explosion. I managed to get a terminal to pull up the blast door controls. "I'm shutting all the doors," I told Oni. "Maybe we can contain all or some of the explosion." I entered the control panel's console. '/EMER PROTOCOL.' It asked for confirmation. 'SEAL ALL? (Y/N)' 'Y.' Additional alarms sounded signifying the airlock and blast doors were closing.

Another coil ruptured and caught fire. The core was expanding more quickly. We couldn't do a damn thing to slow or stop the process.

The core suddenly stopped, and collapsed into itself. Then, it exploded. I don't remember anything after that for a period of time.

I woke up, to find pain in its purest form. I had shrapnel in various parts of my body. One leg was gone. There was a large chunk missing from my side, and it was bleeding badly. I could only see out of one eye. And a metal rod was stabbing through my leg, all the way through to the ground. But I wasn't even thinking about the pain. I was too busy looking around.

The landscape was unfamiliar. Ruins of twisted metal and collapsed buildings, destroyed vehicles, and flayed, charred corpses. I could see some of my fellow technicians and scientists amongst the bodies. I couldn't see Oni or Saya anywhere. I had hoped that meant that they had survived. I couldn't find Rizu, either.

/ / / / /

"I had seen her not long after, but I expect she blames me directly for the accident, blames me for the loss of our home. She's been tailing me around the world, apparently."

Rizu picked me up by my shirt collar. "And now, you won't escape me."


	21. Auditory Assault

CHAPTER 21 / Auditory Assault

Rizu had me by the shirt collar. In her other hand she had something.

"I'm gonna finish you right here, Brother!" She was gathering magic energy. The object in her hand was a spellcard.

"Audio Sign: 'Empithree'!"

Rizu threw me across, and sent a bass wave from the ground, that struck me and sent me into the air. I recovered quickly and pulled a spellcard of my own. Marisa got up and stood beside me, drawing a spellcard of her own.

"You expect me to just watch, ze?" She grinned. "We can take her down, together!"

I smiled, and then focused on Rizu. I looked at the card I drew.

"Carbon-Fibre Blade: 'Ethereal Edge'!"

I pulled up a mass of concrete from under the wood floor, and shifted its carbon matter into a blade. I rushed at Rizu while Marisa stood ready to follow up.

I jumped up, and swung down at Rizu. She sidestepped at just the right moment to avoid it. Ethereal Edge stuck into the floor. Marisa declared her spell.

"Love Sign: 'Nondirectional Laser'!"

I was used to Marisa firing one large rainbow blast out of her hand, but this time, she spawned up six orbs of magical energy, that each fired straight forward. Rizu was paying attention, and was able to dodge before the attack actually fired. But the spell wasn't done. The orbs started rotating, and the beams expanded outward from each other. Rizu didn't expect this, and ended up taking three or four lasers before the force knocked her down. The beams kept going, and the attack was tearing the front end of my house apart.

"For the love of Christ, Marisa! Couldn't you have used something else!?"

The lasers faded out as the spell wore off. There was a large shredded-open hole where the front of my house used to be. Marisa scratched the back of her head. "Sorry, ze!" I sighed heavily, and pulled Ethereal Edge from the floor.

Rizu put her hand to her forehead and looked at it, to check if she was bleeding. She looked at Marisa. "Well, if you don't want your house destroyed, Brother, then maybe we should take this outside!" She pulled another card.

"Audio & Carbon Sign: 'Auditory Assault'!"

A large carbon subwoofer thrusted out from under my floor (destroying yet MORE of my home), in front of Marisa. Before she could react, the large subwoofer sent a heavy sound pulse that forced Marisa backward and out into the trail in front of the house. The speaker crumbled and the pieces fell back into the hole in my livingroom floor.

'ALERT: POWER CELL CHARGE IS LOW.' The notification was blinking on my heads-up display in my left eye. I haven't had the chance to recharge yet. I had been too busy with repairing myself. And I couldn't do it right then, because of Rizu. I can't let her know that I'm weak, or else she will destroy me. The alert kept beeping faintly in my head. 'Shut up!' I yelled in my mind.

Marisa had already recovered from the last attack. Rizu was reaching for her spellcards. She wasn't watching me, so I went in for a strike with the sword. She heard me approach, and moved just forward enough for the blade to barely cut her in the back. She stumbled forward and fell to her hands and knees.

I rushed to Marisa's side, holding Ethereal Edge at the ready, while Marisa grabbed a spellcard. She looked at it, then nudged me. She showed me the card. It looked different from any spellcard I had seen before. She asked me if I was up for it. I nodded.

As Rizu was standing back up, I placed my hand on Marisa's card, and we held it together. Marisa and I stood back to back, both holding the card out toward Rizu. We both called out the spell together.

"Audible Love: 'Bass Spark'!"

As my right hand and her left hand were holding the card, we clasped my left and her right hand in front of the card. Then, we held them forward, aiming at Rizu, and fired a large combination of Bass Blast and Master Spark. The rainbow beam had a red center, that had a white core. Rizu wasn't ready for the attack, and the beam slammed into her dead-on, engulfing her in a combination of heavy bass pulses and raw magic power. Trees behind Rizu were taken out completely by the blast. When the spell had worn off, Rizu was on the ground.

She slowly pushed herself up, and looked at me. "This...isn't over...not by a long shot..." She pulled a spellcard, and held it between her palm and the dirt.

"Pulsation Propulsion!"

She unleashed a heavy bass pulse into the ground, pushing her into the air, and at the same time kicking up dust from the ground. Once the dust had settled, she had already flown out of view.

"Gotta make more of those, ze! That was awesome!" Marisa was in celebration. "We totally kicked her ass!"

"Yeah. Guess we really showed..." My eye's display simply cut off. I fell unconscious while standing. My energy had run out. My seemingly lifeless body fell to its knees, then to its face.

Marisa's voice was calling out to me, fading away as I slipped into darkness.


	22. Aftermath

CHAPTER 22 / Aftermath

I woke up on the recharging station. Marisa had apparently carried me onto the platform and had connected me to it. The first thing I saw after waking up was a very worried Marisa sitting in a chair right next to the platform. She saw that I was awake, and hugged me.

I reached out and held her hand.

/ / / / /

I looked at her. "Do you want to hear about how I got to Gensokyo?" Marisa nodded.

"Well, after the explosion..."

/ / / / /

I wandered in pain for miles, using the metal rod that I removed from my leg as a walking stick, until I found somewhere that I could settle for a moment; the place looked like it used to be a Best Buy or something. I was able to salvage parts from busted electronics, and build parts to replace those that I lost. They weren't much, but they would sustain me until I could find a medical center and have the shrapnel removed from my body. I'll spare you the details of amateur surgery...

Once everything was in working order, I made my way to the nearest city, and into the nearest hospital. I had the shrapnel removed, and got better parts to use for my prosthetics. I had a prosthetic left eye made to look just like my old one. When my name was asked, I made one up.

I went back to the old city. I was going to gather whatever of my belongings had survived, and leave. When I arrived at what remained of my house, I started putting things in boxes. It's a miracle that half of these things even survived the blast. I gathered all the tech I could, disassembling the android recharging station and field generator side projects I had been working on. My computer was in enough of a working condition to pack up as well.

I had to dolly all my boxes. I made my way to the subway station. This particular station was on an intercity railway. I planned on taking the first train to arrive.

I waited for about ten minutes, before seeing lights in the tunnel. Once the train arrived, I boarded, wheeling the dolly onto the train. I looked around to find nobody on this particular train. I found it a little strange, but I stayed on. This train was still heading away from here.

The train looked old and rusted, as if it were a ghost train on an obsolete line. There was no destination announcement, nor a marquee sign stating where the train was to stop next. I sat in a seat and watched the tunnels rush past the car.

Suddenly, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. It quickly approached, suddenly blinding me with the sun's light. The tunnel abruptly ended, and the train ran out of rail and was suddenly sent careening into an open field. I fell from my seat, and held onto the wall as I stood back up. I looked out the window. The train was freely plowing across the field, shaving away grass and dirt. The train suddenly slammed into something, throwing my boxes all over the floor and sending me head-first into the front window of the passenger car.

I got back to my feet, and tried to open the door. It was stuck. I kicked it once, then twice, sending it out into the grass. I stepped and fell out onto the ground. The train was tilted, and I didn't know it was a high step. I looked toward the front of the train. It had slammed into a tree. I looked back behind the wreck, to see where the train had skid down the field, from a sort of portal, that had closed the moment I had noticed it.

I could see an old house in the forest, fairly close to the crash site. I grabbed my things and moved into the empty house. Using pieces from the train, I was able to make repairs to the house where necessary.

/ / / / /

"After a short while, I met you, Marisa." She smiled. "And I must say...you're the best 'new neighbour' anyone could ever have." I smiled back to her.


	23. Lovely Laser, Master Spark!

CHAPTER 23 / Lovely Laser, Master Spark!

After resting a bit longer, I sat up on the recharging station. Marisa had fallen asleep on the nearby couch.

I hopped off the platform and stepped outside, through the large hole that used to be the front section of my house. "Damn...that's depressing," I said to myself as I looked back at the damage from the outside.

I turned away and walked down the trail, passing by Marisa's place. I figured I'd go check out the old crash site.

/ / / / /

I came out of the forest's northwestern end, then walked northbound along the forest's edge. Soon, the scrapheap came into view. Looking at the wreck from the outside, I wondered how anyone-let alone myself-could survive such a crash. I stepped inside and looked around. The windows along the sides were cracked all to hell and back, if not completely busted out. The window of the front of the passenger car had a particular pattern of cracks about it. I could see the dried blood on the impacted window from where I bashed my head into it.

I stepped out of the train.

"Hey!" someone called out to me in a challenging tone of voice. I turned around to find someone standing on top of the train. The figure had green hair and green eyes, and was wearing a red plaid skirt, along with a vest of the same design, on top of a plain white shirt. She had a white umbrella over her shoulder.

"Uh...hi?" I didn't know why she was addressing me in such a tone. Did I do something wrong?

"Is this your train?"

I stood there, thinking. MY train? It was simply my unwilling method of entry. "In a way...I guess. Why?

"Wanna explain why this train simply plowed through my garden?" She appeared angry; she glared at me with a look that could burn a hole through a steel wall. I could detect her pulse and adrenaline levels. She was pumped for a fight. Not only that, but I could feel her magic energy. It was at a level that would rival Flandre's.

"Nothing to say for yourself? Fine! I guess the time for talk is over with!" She pulled out a spellcard.

"Love Sign: 'Master Spark'!"

Master WHAT!?

Thinking quickly, I dove out of the way of the familiar rainbow-coloured laser beam. The grass where I was standing was now gone, along with parts of the earth underneath.

As I recovered from the dive, I thought to myself. This person just used Master Spark. MARISA'S Master Spark. I wanted answers.

I called out to her; she was still standing on top of the train. "Who are you, and how did you get Master Spark?"

She gave me a mean look before answering. "My name is Yuuka Kazami: Flower Master of the Four Seasons. And I CREATED Master Spark!"

"Created? So the spell Marisa uses on a regular basis isn't even hers?" I have no idea why I was surprised at that. Marisa was a sweet girl, but she had a serious case of sticky fingers.

"If you're talking about that damned black-white witch, she stole that from me. Come to think of it..." She paused and put a finger to her lips as she thought briefly. "The word buzzing around is that you and the black-white are fairly close."

"Maybe we are, and maybe we aren't," I responded. "What business is that of yours?"

"Because," she answered, "if I kill you, I'll avenge my ruined garden, AND hit that black-white witch where it hurts!" She jumped from the train and floated some fifteen feet above the ground, and began firing yellow danmaku in my general direction. I ducked and weaved and threw up small fields where I had to to keep from getting hit. Damn! This is the first time I've actually been involved in a danmaku battle. The thing is, I hadn't learned enough about magic to use danmaku yet, be it however so simple...so all I had was spellcards, force, and my own reflexes.

I lost focus and a bullet broke through one of my fields and caught my stomach, sending me backward, tumbling onto the grass. I looked up at her, still floating there, seeming displeased. "Why don't you try fighting back? Come on...hit me!"

'Hit me'? Well...she asked for it.

"10,000 Decibels:...!"

"Love Sign:...!"

I anticipated her attack, and prepared to dodge her beam as I fired mine.

"...'Bass Blast'!"

I jumped to the right as I fired.

"...'Dual Spark'!"

DUAL Spark!?

Yuuka held out both hands and fired two half-sized Master Spark lasers. The beam on her right caught nothing but dirt. Her left, however, pummeled me hard. I met with the ground again. My beam never even hit her.

She brought herself down, setting foot on the ground by me. She was pulling out another spellcard. This was it. Yuuka was about to Master Spark me into the dirt.

"Stop this now, Yuuka." An unfamiliar voice suddenly made herself known.


	24. Corrupted Sister

CHAPTER 24 / Corrupted Sister

"I need that particular person alive."

Yuuka prepared to use her spell. "This does not involve you, Yukari!"

"Stand down, Yuuka!" The new face spoke sternly. "Know your place!" Yuuka looked at her, then me, then back at her. She put her spellcard back, unused.

I got back to my feet. "What do you mean, you need me alive?..." I turned to look at her. She had long blonde hair and dark golden eyes, and was donning a pink and purple dress. Her cap had a thin ribbon tied at the front, and she was carrying a pink parasol. She yawned, as if she had just woke up, despite the fact of it being the later evening.

"Just what are you doing here exactly, Yukari?" asked Yuuka, showing displeasure. "And what do you mean 'my place'? What makes you think you have the right to-"

As Yuuka went on, Yukari smiled a slightly menacing smile. "If you keep on like that, I'll gap you into another dimension." Yuuka stopped talking and simply stood by. Yukari turned to me. "Now then, Razu Teionhakushi."

"You know my name? Just who are you anyway?"

"Why, I am Yukari Yakumo," she answered confidently, "overseer of the Boundaries of this fine land we call Gensokyo. And you, Razu Teionhakushi..." She smiled. "...are here on my accord, not your own."

"Wait," I interjected, "you brought me here? So this train-"

"Is my own," she said, finishing my sentence.

Yuuka suddenly felt the need to interrupt. "YOU'RE responsible for this!? You ruined my garden! Do you have any idea of the damage you've done!?"

Yukari shifted to look at her. "There are more important things at hand here. If you'd rather fight me about it, we can later." She had a look about her eyes that said, 'if we fight, count on getting stomped.' Yuuka read this as well, and took it as a signal to just be quiet.

"Now, then." She turned to face me once more. "I brought you here for a reason. There's something I need you to prevent from happening."

"A sort of incident? I thought Reimu handled the incidents here."

"She will assist, but you are the key element to our safety."

I was slightly puzzled, but I went along with it. "Alright. What exactly am I preventing?"

"Someone is trying to encapsule Gensokyo in eternal darkness." She paused. "I don't know who exactly, but your sister is involved."

"Rizu!?" She nodded. This didn't make sense. "But Rizu arrived here because she was following me. Wouldn't bringing me here have caused such danger?"

"She had been appearing in Gensokyo for about a year before you arrived, but only recently has she become more active."

I remember the battle with Rizu. She was using spellcards quite well, come to think of it, almost as if she had a considerable amount of time to practice.

"I want you to find out who she is helping. She's definitely not working alone." Yukari turned away, and a rip in the empty space in front of her opened. Without turning, she spoke once more.

"Don't fail. Gensokyo is depending on you." With that, she stepped into the void, which closed and vanished soon after.

I stood there, lost in thought. Yuuka muttered something under her breath, and left as well. I was left at the train. About twenty minutes passed as I thought about the situation. I decided to head back home.

/ / / / /

It became dark as I walked down the familiar path through the forest. Other than the crickets and the close-by fairies randomly flying about, beating their small wings as they fluttered by, it was quiet. But I felt like there was something, or someone else out there...

/ / / / /

I stopped walking once I was by Marisa's shop. The lights were on. I guess she left my place and came here. I figured I'd step inside and explain the situation to her.


	25. Blackening Sky

CHAPTER 25 / Blackening Sky

"You met Yuuka? And Yukari? And Yukari said what?"

Marisa was confused. I had done my best to explain what Yukari had told me.

"Well, if what Yukari said is true, then Rizu will definitely show up again."

Marisa looked at the grandfather clock. "Well, I suppose we should turn in for the night, ze," she said.

I turned toward the door to walk home.

"Where are you going, ze?"

"I'm going home to sleep, why?"

"Raz, your house has a huge hole in it. I can't let you sleep there, ze!"

I found myself turning a slight red. Marisa was a kind girl. Of course she would open up her home to me. I took her up on her offer and slept at the Magic Shop.

/ / / / /

The next day, as Marisa and I walked down the trail heading to Reimu's (we decided to walk this time), I thought more and more about Rizu's involvement in this whole incident. Why would she be so influenced? Rizu used to be different. She used to be so...ordinary.

It was then that I remembered how strangely she was acting around the time before the accident. She began to keep more and more to herself, and she would run off a lot. That's right, Yukari said she had been appearing in Gensokyo before my arrival.

I guess now she is here full-time.

"Raz, ze?" Marisa looked at me inquisitively.

"Oh, sorry. I was thinking."

/ / / / /

After a long walk from the forest, we arrived at the stone steps leading up to the shrine. There were a lot of steps. Walking was nice, but... Marisa and I looked at each other, as if to say 'screw that,' and we simply flew up to the shrine.

Reimu was sweeping cherry blossom petals from the stone walkway when we landed.

"Oh, Marisa, Raz! Good to see you."

"Heya Reimu. Got any food for us, ze?"

"You expect food to be ready and waiting for you even though I had no idea you were coming?"

I interrupted. "Food can wait. Reimu, has Yukari visited you?"

"Not yet, why?"

"I have to explain something to you."

/ / / / /

"What!?"

"Yeah, so you see, I need to find my sister."

Reimu looked worried. "I'm sorry, but I've yet to meet your sister. But, I suppose I can help you look for her. What does she look like?" I described Rizu to her. "I haven't seen her before. Want to start searching after we eat? I don't mind cooking for three."

/ / / / /

After eating a quick meal, we all set out to search. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon when we flew off from the shrine courtyard.

As we flew, Marisa was cleaning the little octagonal-shaped box she used to help us escape the cell in the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion awhile back. Reimu was counting her talismans and checking through her spellcards. I was preparing mentally. Once we got above the Forest of Magic, we split up.

After four hours of searching, we regrouped, having found nothing. The sun had set, and I'd be the only one able to search efficiently at night. We decided to head back to Hakurei Shrine.

It was around 7 PM, and already dark, once we arrived. We landed, and headed towards the entrance.

"Stop right there."

All three of us stopped, turned around, and looked up.

Reimu and Marisa knew the short, bat-winged, blue-haired girl flying above. "Remilia?" And next to her, was the little blond vampire, Flandre...only this time, she only had one prism-laden iron wing.

"Yes," said Remilia. She pointed to Marisa. "You were in my mansion again recently. You and your red-black friend there-" she pointed to me- "caused a bit of a mess in my home. You attacked my tutor, wounded my maid, and nearly killed my sister."

"Yeah, that hurt!" said Flandre, arms straight down and fists tightened.

Remilia continued. "You two will answer for your deeds. And Reimu," she pointed at her, "This is my revenge toward you for the events of that summer."

A well of darkness was appearing above the Scarlet sisters. Don't tell me Rumia is here, too... The dark mist faded away, and revealed...Rizu!?

Marisa and Reimu were getting ready for the inevitable battle. I stood front-center, looking at Rizu. I wanted to ask, 'why does it have to be like this?' but I knew she wouldn't answer me.

"Remilia, Flandre," she told them, "kill these three, and I will make the skies of Gensokyo black for all eternity!"

"Finally..." Remilia said as she bared her fangs, "...freedom." Remilia and Flandre both swooped down at us, as Rizu hovered above, like a pretend princess, watching her subjects dance like puppets.


	26. Decisions: Part One

CHAPTER 26 / Decisions: Part One

Remilia went for Reimu.

Flandre went for Marisa.

Rizu stayed there, floating, giving me a wicked grin. It pissed me off. Instead of waiting for her, I pulled a spellcard and jumped up at her. I held the spellcard flat in the palm of my right hand, as the momentum of that hand kept the card, as I motioned as if to attempt to palm her in the face.

"10,000 Decibels: 'Bass-'"

She quickly swatted my hand away with her left forearm, then kicked me in the stomach, sending me back a few feet. My spellcard sailed into the air.

"Raz!" Marisa saw me, when she should have been focusing on Flandre. 'Damn her,' I thought to myself, 'she's going to get killed that way!' Marisa started to come up and assist me, but Flandre blocked her way.

"Can't you see that the red-black and Rizu are playing? Don't interrupt!" She pulled her spellcard, and declared.

"Taboo: 'Lævateinn'!"

The staff materialized from the card, and Flandre swung hard at Marisa. Marisa held up her broom in defense.

Reimu was watching Remilia, waiting for her first move. Before too long, Remilia made a quick dash for Reimu-and when I say fast, I mean lightning fast. Remilia seemingly teleported and appeared just behind Reimu, and just as Reimu noticed where she was, Remilia struck her in the shoulder with her wing.

My spellcard was still imbued with magical energy from my body. As it sailed by, I threw both my hands at it while it was in midair, and aimed it at Rizu.

"'...Blast'!"

The small delay in declaration caused an extra collection of energy just before firing, causing Bass Blast to be a bit bigger than usual. The giant crimson beam would have dealt some serious damage...if Rizu hadn't grazed past it. Marisa turned and saw the beam coming, and quickly moved herself out of the way. Flandre wasn't quick enough to react, and took full damage from the blast, as it sent her through the walkway of the shrine courtyard.

Marisa looked at Flandre, then back at me. "Be careful with that, ze! Coulda blasted me straight to the moon!" Flandre was already recovering from her meeting with the dirt. She looked up at me.

"Why, you...!" She got up from her crater, and dashed up at me at high speed. Seeing as Flandre dropped Marisa and started to attack me, Marisa focused on Rizu.

Marisa took a spellcard in one hand, and her broom in the other, holding the broom handle up toward Rizu while angling the brush end at the ground. She then held the card against the broom handle while holding onto the broom with both hands.

"Star Sign: 'Escape Velocity'!"

Marisa held onto the broom as it pulls her quickly toward Rizu, who had just noticed her. Rizu held her hand out and forced-manipulated the broom to a midair stop, sending Marisa over the front of the broom's handle, leaving her holding onto the broom handle to keep from falling.

Meanwhile, Flandre was charging at me, Lævateinn in her hand. She swung it at me as hard as she could, but I quickly dodged it, then force-manipulated Lævateinn itself out of her hands. "No, no, NO! Lævateinn is MINE, not yours! Give it BACK!" She threw up her hand, and captured my body's center of mass into her hand. I could feel my torso become slightly constricted.

"I don't think so!" I manipulated Lævateinn into a spin, and sent it towards her, it appearing to become like a flaming circular sawblade as it closed in on Flandre. She was unable to avoid Lævateinn hitting her, which did cause her to release her hold on my body's center of mass. "Now stay down, or I'll rip out your OTHER wing!"

Reimu had been knocked down by Remilia's previous blow to her shoulder. Reimu soon got back up to her feet, holding her shoulder. She looked over to the shrine wall, to see her gohei leaning up against it. She reached for it, and held it up in defense. Remilia pulled a spellcard, looked at it, then looked up at Reimu. She smirked. "Let's make this quick, shall we?"

"Divine Spear: 'Spear the Gungnir'!"

Remilia held the card up as it glowed red, then the magical energy collected spanned into a large energy spear. She pulled back, and threw Gungnir at Reimu. Reimu jumped left, managing to escape the blunt of the attack, but the shock sent her into a flip, as she landed on her back.

Marisa was still hanging onto her broom, which was suspended in the air by Rizu's force. Rizu revealed a spellcard. "Brother!" I looked up to her. "Stop me if you know this one!" I saw the card.

"Force: 'Electromagnet's Polarity'!"

I wasn't sure what she was about to do, or how she managed to get that card, but I didn't wanna stand there and watch. I flew up toward her, but stopped short when she force-manipulated Marisa directly, releasing her broom and letting it fall to the ground, breaking it in two.

She tightened her grip on Marisa. "Don't come any closer, or I'll KILL your girlfriend!"

What she was doing right then infuriated me. Attacking me is one thing, but I won't have her threatening to kill Marisa. That was it. My little sister Rizu had to die!

I pulled the same spellcard.

"Force: 'Electromagnet's Polarity'!"

I took control of Rizu's head, and tightened my grip a little to get her attention. She looked at me, wide-eyed. My left eye was glowing bright red.

"Don't you fucking DARE! I will kill you right here and now if you do!"

If Rizu clenched her fist, Marisa will be crushed. If I clench mine, Rizu's head will implode.

We were at a stalemate.


	27. Decisions: Part Two

CHAPTER 27 / Decisions: Part Two

Rizu was glaring at me as she kept Marisa suspended in the air. I stared Rizu down as I kept hold of her head. Why did things have to be like this!?

"I'm not kidding, Rizu," I angrily said to her, "let Marisa go or I will destroy you!"

She simply smirked. "Very well. Kill me. Kill your little sister!"

I hated her for doing this. The thought of the current situation made me feel sick; my insides felt like they were twisting and turning and tying into knots. I wanted to pull my hair out.

I mustered up the strength to speak. "Sister," I asked, "why are we doing this? Why do you attack me, Marisa, and my friends?"

She looked surprised at the question, but continued to glare at me. "Because of what you did back home! You should know that!"

"Rizu, that was an accident! It was not within my control!"

"I'm not talking about the explosion!"

That stopped me. What else could possibly influence her so?

Rizu's glare faded. She looked down, showing a somewhat sad expression on her face. "...I was never appreciated in the family. Father and Mother always talked about how great Razu was, and how Razu was always doing amazing and incredible things." She paused. "I wasn't the smart one of the family. I couldn't accomplish anything. I couldn't do anything right."

Reimu was on the ground, defending herself against Remilia. Flandre was struck pretty hard before, and she was still knocked out. I heard Reimu declare a spellcard, but I wasn't focused enough on her to hear what it was, only hearing the explosions from the colliding attacks that followed.

Rizu continued. "I attempted to run away one night. I made my way into the city, where I met this strange young girl. She told me she could give me power, so that I could become more important... She transported me to this place, and she told me that she couldn't share her power with me just yet. She said she would in due time...

"She would bring me back home and back here every so often. Every time I came back, I felt more and more power circulating through me. I was soon able to move things without touching them. One night, when I came back to Gensokyo, the girl showed me something in a book..."

I interrupted. "Sister...you have to tell me who this girl is... I can save you from her influence... We will all help you..."

She bit her lip and looked down. She appeared as if she was going to break down into tears. "...Rumia...her name is Rumia."

Marisa and I were startled at this. I think I even heard Reimu gasp down below. Rumia!? The little youkai of darkness that I took down so easily before?

Marisa spoke. "Rizu, Rumia will trick you into helping her for her own gain! Once she has what she wants from you, she will cast you aside! You have to tell me, ze, did you take her ribbon off?"

Rizu looked down, and closed her eyes tightly. "...Yes."

"Rumia's extra powerful now, ze! That ribbon was a sealing amulet that impaired her true power!"

"I know!" She tightened her other fist to keep from tightening the one that was controlling the force that held up Marisa. "She shared her power of darkness with me, saying that she could help me become happy. But I'm not happy... I don't want to kill my brother..." She began to cry. "I didn't wanna attack you...I didn't wanna attack your friends...and I didn't wanna destroy our home..."

I was suddenly struck with surprise. "The explosion wasn't your-"

"It was!" Rizu yelled at me through her tears. "I sabotaged the core! I destroyed our city! But I'm sorry! I was under Rumia's influence!..." She released her hold on Marisa, and she started to fall. I released Rizu and captured Marisa in a force barrier-bubble. Her broom was broken, so she couldn't use it to fly.

Rizu was breaking down. "Rizu, I forgive you. What happened was not your fault. Rumia was manipulating you. This doesn't have to continue..." Rizu looked at me. "We can take down Rumia, together. You, me, Marisa, and Reimu."

Rizu smiles a bit and wiped her tears from her eyes. Then she directed her attention to Remilia, and Flandre, who was just getting back up.

"Scarlets!" she called out to them. "I'm dismissing you. Go back to the mansion!"

Remilia stopped attacking Reimu and looked up at Rizu. "What? No way! I'm finishing this now!"

"Remilia!" She sternly yelled. "You are working for ME! Now do what I said and go home, now!"

Remilia started to say something, but kept quiet. She turned to Reimu and gave her a deathly glare. "This is NOT over." She turned to her sister. "Flan! We're going home." With that, the two vampires took flight.

Rizu, Marisa and I touched down in the courtyard. Reimu walked over to meet us. "I heard everything," Reimu said to us. "Raz, do you have a plan?"

"Not completely," I responded, "but Rumia doesn't know that Rizu traded sides yet. We can use this to our advantage."

"Um, Brother? I have to tell you something else." I turned to her. "Meet me at the Magic Shop in an hour, and I'll explain..."


	28. The Family Gift

CHAPTER 28 / The Family Gift

We had arrived at Marisa's place. Marisa opened the door and welcomed us in. Her place was in just as much of a mess as it has ever been.

We each cleared some books off of a table, and pulled up some chairs. The three of us sat down, looking at each other.

Rizu finally started. "Do you know where your powers come from?"

That seemed like a stupid question. "Of course," I said. "My prostheti-"

"Look at me, Brother. Do I have prosthetics?" She was right. Every bit of her was real-the body she was born with. It was all there. So the fact that my powers first showed themselves after I had my arm and eye replaced was a coincidence.

...But what about the fact that my abilities surfaced later after that, when I entered Gensokyo? I took another shot at the question. "Gensokyo's filled with magical energy. It's practically in the air."

"Well...yes and no," Rizu replied. "For the two of us, there's a bit more to it than that."

Marisa and I looked at Rizu. Neither of us understood.

"Oh!" Marisa suddenly got up from her chair, and went over to a bookshelf. (I was surprised that she still had books ON her shelves. I thought that they were all on the floor, tables, furniture, and pretty much everywhere BUT the shelves.) She came back with a black book with a red stripe on the spine, and a very familiar symbol on the cover. Rizu's and my eyes widened.

"Where'd you get that?" she inquired rather aggressively, standing up.

"From Patchy, ze," she answered, as she opened the large book to its inside cover. Sure enough, the lavender "PK" stamp was very noticeable. "I asked her once, and she doesn't even know where it came from." Rizu sat back down. As she turned to the title page, the emblem is seen again, as well as a title. "History of Teionhakushi."

Marisa looked at Rizu, then at me. "I noticed this before, and I was going to tell you, Raz...but so much has been going on lately."

"It's alright," I said to her.

Rizu took the book, and flipped through it, until she found what she was about to say. "Look here."

I read the paragraph she had pointed out.

'The first to exhibit these abilities were the children of Xeno Teionhakushi-Ruri, Lulu, and Haiteku Teionhakushi. It has been said that Xeno used to experiment with combinations of magic and alchemy, that seemed to have a lasting effect in his DNA. A chemical imbalance in the body results in the ability to manipulate carbon atoms at will, as well as enhance audio-based abilities and weapons. Another result of this imbalance (which has been found to be a combination of an alchemic reaction and magical energy within the body) is the deformity in the left eye, which appears as a three-part circle, with a prong on each part and a smaller circle in the center.'

"It goes on to say that the powers begin to be usable, starting at a certain age," Rizu said. "The only reason I got mine so quickly was because Gensokyo's magic-filled atmosphere hastened the process." That made sense.

But wouldn't this mean that I would be able to manipulate sound at will? Or just that I'd be attuned to sound more than any other element? I'd have to study this while I was alone.

/ / / / /

Rizu, Marisa, and I began talking about the final battle with Rumia. We had decided to let Rizu take us to her. Afterward, Marisa started restocking our spellcards, and we started making final preparations. It's high time that we closed this out.


	29. Black Dawn: Part One

CHAPTER 29 / Black Dawn: Part One

Once our spellcards were restocked, Rizu, Marisa, and I set out to visit Reimu. Once we had explained the plan to her, Rizu led the way to where we would find Rumia.

"Be sure to stay out of sight when we get close," Rizu told us. "I'll keep the area around you shrouded so she won't be able to see you."

/ / / / /

Rizu led us to a dense area of trees in the forest. She asked us to stay close to a tree, as she put up a shroud of darkness around us.

Rumia was just ahead. It was hard to see through the dark cloud hiding Reimu, Marisa, and I, but I could see her with the help of my left eye.

She appeared taller. Her blonde hair, no longer bound by the red ribbon, appeared to be a bit longer. That's when I remembered what Marisa said. The ribbon tied to her hair was a sealing amulet that restricted her power. She was a minor nuisance before, but now that the ribbon's gone, I felt like I was going to have my hands full.

At least I had my friends and my sister to help. At least I was not alone.

Rizu made her presence known to Rumia.

"Did you take care of our problem?"

"Yes. As requested, the shrine maiden and her magician friend have been eliminated."

"...And your brother?"

Rizu's eyes shifted slightly. "...Yes. He will no longer be a problem."

Rumia stood there for a moment, silent. It seemed like a very long moment, despite the fact that it was probably only a few seconds. Then, Rumia threw her hand up and grabbed Rizu by the throat.

"You're lying!" Rumia exclaimed, showing a sudden obvious anger. She picked Rizu up by the throat and threw her. I heard the impact, as well as Rizu crying out in pain as she slammed her back into the tree. "Remilia has already informed me of your betrayal!" I saw Remilia appear from the trees. She had been there the entire time. Flandre was with her.

Remilia stood over Rizu as she layed against the tree. "You're so foolish," she said. "Why on earth would I continue to side with you if you were going to go back on our deal? Rumia will succeed in blacking out Gensokyo's sky. Flandre and I will be free to roam Gensokyo forever...and you're not going to be around to change that."

Flandre looked over in the direction of our hiding spot, then turned to Rumia. Flandre knew we were there. Rumia knew as well. She looked at Flandre, and spoke.

"Kill them."

Flandre aimed at the dark cloud that was hiding us.

I grabbed Marisa and Reimu's arms and ran out of the way.

"Kyu!"

The tree next to where we were collapsed into itself and spread splinters all over.

"Marisa, take Flan! Reimu, save my sister!"

"What about you, ze?"

"I'm going after Rumia." I wasted no time. I went straight for her.

Before I reached her, Rumia sent out a dense black fog, that concealed her as well as started to flood the sky. In less than a minute, the entire area above the Forest of Magic was clouded with black fog. And it wasn't stopping. She indeed planned to cover the entire sky.

There was a strange force that kept me from getting close to the black cloud pillar. I'd have to get her to attack me to make her stop flooding the sky. There was no way I was going to let Rumia win.


	30. Black Dawn: Part Two

CHAPTER 30 / Black Dawn: Part Two

I wasn't able to attack Rumia at that moment; I couldn't even get close to her. I'd have to draw her into attack. Maybe if we take out Remilia and Flandre, she would be more provoked to try and stop me, I thought.

The sky was quickly being filled with black fog. The sun, which was just rising over the horizon, was already being blocked out.

I saw Rizu getting on her feet. She and Reimu would be able to handle Remilia without too much trouble. I decided to help Marisa with Flandre.

When I joined Marisa, Flandre looked at us both and scowled. "Two against one is unfair!" she announced as she reached for a spellcard. Despite the numbers, Flandre was a tank of an opponent, even if she did have the appearance of a nine-year-old. I was surprised that she would react this way to being outnumbered, even though she definitely wasn't outgunned.

She showed off her spellcard by holding it above her head as she called out its name.

"Taboo: 'Four of a Kind'!"

The card sent out a bright flash as it disappeared. When the burned shapes in my eyes faded, I saw that there were now four opponents in front of us.

Now, it was definitely unfair...for us.

Two of them came straight at me. I took hold of one by the wrist and rolled backward, throwing her over me and into a tree. The second one moved up close, doing a somersault and whipping her single wing at me, striking my shoulder. I collapsed down to one knee, but quickly stood back up and kicked her in the chest, giving us a bit of space. I grabbed a spellcard and used it quickly while she was stunned.

"Audio Sign: 'Electrostatic'!"

Card in palm, I clasped my hands together, sending an electrostatic bolt at the clone, hitting her chest, and sending her backward. She slammed into a tree and exploded. Three to go. I turned around to find the other one already within striking distance, about to claw me in the face. I grabbed her wrist before she made contact, and swept my foot beneath her, taking her feet out from under her. I got up into the air, and looked over to Marisa to see if she was holding up alright. "Hey!" I shouted to her. "You need any help over there?"

"I'm having fun with them, ze!" She was dodging move after move, toying with the two. She jumped over one's shoulders and kicked off of her back. "What about you, ze?"

"I'm-" I was interrupted by a wave of red danmaku whizzing right by my face. "...Doing fine!"

Marisa kept dodging claws, prisms, and danmaku, eventually jumping up into the air, next to where I was. We both drew a spellcard each.

"Star Sign: 'Dragon Meteor'!"

"10,000 Decibels: 'Bass Blast'!"

The large Master Spark-like rainbow beam kept Marisa in the air as it collided with the ground, engulfing the Flandre twins. Bass Blast collided with the other Flandre. When both beams cleared, Marisa landed back on the ground. The two clones on her end were gone. The one I had attacked was still there-she was the real Flandre.

I wasn't really paying attention to Reimu and Rizu. Although, I could hear spellcard declarations and explosions aplenty.

Flandre was getting back up. She looked at me for a moment, then shifted to Marisa. She charged at her, declaring another spell.

"Taboo: 'Lævateinn'!"

The weapon materialized in her hands and she swung down with all her might. Marisa wasn't ready for it.

Without thinking, I threw my hand at the ground, and forced up a wall of rocks up to block Lævateinn's strike. It smashed through the rocks, of course, but it gave Marisa a moment to move. "How did you do that, ze?"

I think I'm learning to use stronger force manipulation without the assistance of spellcards...is what I would have said if I wasn't suddenly dodging swings from Flandre's weapon. Each missed attack struck the ground and exploded, setting patches of the ground on fire.

"Sit still!" Flandre shouted, still trying to hit me. I reached out and force-manipulated a nearby tree, and swung it at Flandre, who simply smashed it to pieces with Lævateinn. She kept coming toward me, until...

"Audio & Carbon Sign: 'Auditory Assault'!"

A sudden bass explosion, and Remilia was sent flying...right into Flandre. The two of them hit a large stone and fall unconscious. Marisa looks over to Rizu and Reimu, giving a thumbs-up.

Now, what about Rumia? She was still untouchable, in the pillar of black that was melding with the sky, which was by now a solid matte black. The four of us regrouped.

"Oh, forgot to mention, ze, I made this." She handed Rizu a new spellcard. She showed it to me. It was another combination spell. "Now hurry up and blast her so we don't have to do a Part Three, ze!"

"Don't talk about stuff like that," I said.

I looked at the card, examining the picture and the title. With luck, this could stop Rumia from flooding the sky. Rizu and I took our positions in front of the black fog pillar, me standing probably one-and-a-half yards to her left. She had the card in her palm as she put her hand out towards me. I clasped my hand to hers at the same time. With the card between our hands, we declared.

"Power: 'Pillars of Teionhakushi'!"

We pulled our hands apart from each other, and placed them on the ground. The ground glowed red, then beneath each of us, one large black and red pillar with five large speakers, stacking vertically, rose from the ground. Once the pillars were up, I looked at Marisa, who was standing behind us, centered. I pulled up a large carbon pillar from the ground to let her have adequate height to aid in our attack.

Once we were all ready, Rizu and I initiated our attack.

"Fire!"

The pillars emitted a red glow as they charged, before firing an immense Bass Blast from each of the ten speakers, all colliding hard with Rumia.


	31. Black Dawn: Part Three

CHAPTER 31 / Black Dawn: Part Three

"Fire!"

The pillars charged briefly, and then fired a Bass Blast-like attack from each of the ten speakers, all of which went past the dense black fog and hit Rumia directly. The black fog stopped, but the sky was still covered in it.

"Marisa!" I shouted, "Now!"

"Right, ze!" She pulled out her spellcard-the spellcard that she had been experimenting with. Originally it was supposed to be a modification of one of her existing spells, she told me before. But now, it had a different name.

"Perverse Love: 'Easyharvest Master Spark'!"

She fired a narrow, focused multicoloured beam that joined with our attacks. It didn't appear like much.

"That's it?"

"Not even close, ze!" She put her foot back for balance, then the thin beam turned into a widespread, incredibly powerful beam, larger than any Master Spark I've seen so far. The beam would have hit us if we were any further in front. In fact, we were close enough to feel the heat off of it.

The force of the beam alone sent Marisa's hat flying backward off her head. Marisa's unkempt blonde hair was blasted back as the beam hit not only Rumia, but everything around her. Trees were vaporized. Rocks were scorched. Reimu was standing behind Marisa, down on the ground. Her hair and large hairbow was flying backward.

Our attacks ended. Once the smoke cleared, I saw that there were no trees left standing there. No rocks, not even any grass. The only thing left standing...was Rumia.

"What the...!?" Marisa was baffled. She had used her most powerful spell, and the target is still there. She fell to her bottom and sat there on the platform.

Rumia floated up, and stretched her arms out. "Pretty good. You almost knocked me down."

I saw that Marisa was sitting down, somewhat dazed-looking. I went to check on her. "You alright?"

"It...it doesn't make any sense... Easyharvest is the best I've got, ze..." She was staring down, past the ground. She was out of it.

"Brother! She's attacking!"

I turned around to find a wave of danmaku coming towards us. I grabbed Marisa and flew clear as the bullets crashed into the pillar, bringing it down. Rizu was in the air, clear of danger, when I checked on her.

I set Marisa down by a tree. Rizu met us there. "Watch her. I'm going in." I didn't wait for a response.

I heard Reimu shout. "What am I supposed to do?"

Rizu stayed with Marisa as I ran towards Rumia. I touched my hand to a rock as I ran past it, using its carbon to pull Ethereal Edge from it. I didn't stop running as I pulled the newly spawned weapon from the rock's matter.

Rumia took a spellcard, and threw it down, sticking the corner into the ground.

"Edge of Darkness: 'Death's Eye'."

A well of darkness surrounded the card, and the card itself disintegrated into a black wisp. The darkness rose and took form, into a black blade. The hilt had a red ribbon around it, and the bottom part of the blade had a red eye.

She quickly grabbed and rose the blade to block mine, as I swung down with Ethereal Edge. We were close-deathly close-to each other. If I wasn't holding Ethereal Edge, I could strangle her with my bare hands. I wanted to. For all the pain she caused. For my home city. For Rizu. For Marisa.

I pulled Ethereal Edge back and swung back and under, hitting her sword and breaking her block. Rumia rebounded and swung at my arm, and struck. No damage. I would have worried about my jacket if it wasn't already half-destroyed.

As I dueled with Rumia, I could hear Rizu and Reimu trying to snap Marisa out of it.

I swung horizontally, and Rumia jumped up into the air. I followed suit and swung once more. She moved back, but part of the stomach of her shirt was cut. A small scratch drew blood. She covered the cut with her left hand, and swung at me, holding Death's Eye with the right. I dodged, and kicked her, hitting both her hand and her stomach. She moved further back and fired more danmaku. Each bullet was way off.

"Hah, who taught you how to shoot?"

"Who said I was aiming at you?"

I turned around. The bullets were heading straight for the others. I started to put up a force shield up in front of them, but Rumia moved in and swung at me. I dodged her, but it caused me to lose my focus on the shield, and it fell. I heard the bullets collide. I turned around and looked. Please, please let my friends be okay...

The smoke cleared, and I saw a reddish field in front of my friends. Rizu threw up a field in the last second. "Don't worry about us. Kick that bitch's ass, brother!"

I nodded, and turned back to Rumia. She didn't seem happy. "Looks like it's just you and me, yeah?" I smirked. Surprisingly enough, so did she.


	32. Last Word

CHAPTER 32 / Last Word

No more interruptions. Rizu and Reimu were caring for Marisa. I had Rumia all to myself.

Rumia looked at me-a look that said, 'I want to rip your throat out and shove it somewhere unthinkable.' She was angry, and uneasy; nervous. She didn't show it, but I knew.

"Die!" She swung Death's Eye at me rather hard, hitting my prosthetic arm and sending me aside. I recovered easily, but I felt something loosen in my arm. It can't take another hit like that.

I held Ethereal Edge with both hands, and braced for her next attack. Sure enough, she charged at me, ready to swing once again. I put up my blade and pushed hers aside, and put my left hand against her stomach. Before she could move, I force-pushed her into a nearby tree. She collided with it, then fell to the ground. I saw her get to her feet, and look up at me. Then, again, she looked in Marisa's direction. She started running towards them. Rizu got in front of her, stopping her.

"That's close enough," she said, holding her palm out front. Rumia scowled at her.

"Don't think I can't get past you."

"Try me."

I touched down behind her. She wouldn't be able to take us both.

Or maybe, she would. She threw both hands out and sent out danmaku toward the two of us. Rizu was hit in the stomach and sent backward. She landed in the brush somewhere. I was hit in the chest and arm. The arm, weak from the earlier blow, exploded into several large pieces, as I flew backward and fell to the ground. I had dropped Ethereal Edge somewhere along the way. I saw Reimu grab her gohei and run in for an attack, but Rumia smacked her with the flat side of Death's Eye, hitting her in the temple, tossing her sideways and knocking her unconscious. I saw her begin to bleed as she lay on the ground.

Rumia turned to me. She was walking slowly toward me, dragging the tip of her blade in the ground. I reached for my spellcards. Rumia threw Death's Eye and sheathed it in my human arm. I cringed and bit my lip to keep from screaming in horrible pain...I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction.

The blade went clear through my arm and into a tree. I was stuck. Trapped, and helpless.

Rumia stood in front of me, and held out her palm at me, charging a large well of black energy. She grinned.

"Good night."

/ / / / /

"Love Sign: 'Master Spark'!"

The large, multicoloured beam slammed into Rumia. She faceplanted and bounced off of the ground before hitting a large boulder. I looked at the end of the rainbow to see Marisa, holding up her palm, and sturdying her arm with the other arm. She was still weak, and couldn't stand.

"Ra...Raz...stay alive...! Keep...fighting, ze...!"

It was as if Marisa's voiced concern for me brought me new strength. I focused on Death's Eye and forced it out of my arm, and kept focus on it, keeping it floating by my side, angled at the ground. I stood up, and walked toward where Rumia landed.

Rumia slowly got up to her feet, her face dripping with youkai blood. She held one hand to her bleeding head. She threw the other hand up, aiming towards me, and charged several wells of energy, and fired them all at me. I created force bubbles around each bullet, and imploded them. I could see the fear in Rumia's uncovered eye as I stepped closer. I saw where Ethereal Edge had landed, and took control of it, keeping it at my side, opposite of Death's Eye. Rumia panicked, and quickly charged a large orb of energy and threw it at me. I manipulated Rumia's blade to deflect it, and sent the charge flying off into the sky.

Rumia started to run. I moved Ethereal Edge in front of her to block her path, then controlled it to strike her in the side of the head with the flat edge. She fell sideways. Rumia stood back up, now bleeding more. She weakly held her hand up and started to charge another shot. I wasn't going to have it. I aimed Ethereal Edge at her, and sent it into her stomach, pushing her back and pinning her to a tree. She screamed. I stepped closer. Rumia looked at Death's Eye, floating next to me. She reached her hand out for it, helplessly. That's exactly how I wanted her to feel.

I glanced at Death's Eye, then back at Rumia. "Hm? You want this?" I stopped in front of her.

She looked at her blade, then back at me. "...Fuck...you..." She spit blood at my face.

"In that case..." Keeping the blade by my side, I turned around and started to walk away.

After a few yards, I stopped. Without turning around, I manipulated the blade, aiming it at Rumia. I focused hard on the blade, and split off two large shards from it. All three parts were aimed at her. "If you want the weapon so bad...then I guess I'll let you HAVE IT!" I sent the fragments flying at her. The two shards went into her wrists, pinning her arms up in the form of a crucifix. She screamed again. Then, I sent the sword itself straight toward her. I turned to see the blade pierce her face, and come out the back of her head and penetrate the tree. Her eyes were stuck open, and she was crying tears of blood. I walked away, leaving her for dead.


	33. Epilogue

CHAPTER 33 / Epilogue

I left Rumia for dead. I really didn't care if she had died or had just stayed there suffering. I was fine with either.

I returned to Marisa. She was up on her feet now, checking on Reimu's head wound. She would be okay, but we needed to get her bandaged up. Rizu was on her hands and knees, just this moment getting up. "You missed it," I told her.

"What, really? Damn." She stood up and shook her head, trying to escape her dizzy feeling.

I noticed that Remilia and Flandre were nowhere to be found. They must have escaped at some point during the battle. The black clouds were going away, to reveal the sun. It was morning, probably around 10:30. "Well," I said, "shall we go?"

Rizu carried Reimu on her back, and Marisa held onto me, as we flew back to the shrine.

/ / / / /

Once we arrived, Rizu layed Reimu on her bed. "Where's the first-aid supplies?"

"Bathroom-left cabinet under the sink," Marisa answered. I went and got it for her. While I was at it, I bandaged up my arm and made a makeshift sling. It would take a while for the bone to heal. I supposed this would do for the time being.

"We are gonna head home, ze. Can you handle things from here?"

"Certainly," Rizu responded.

Marisa and I walked back to the shrine exit. Marisa grabbed a bamboo broom from the corner. "Tell Reimu I borrowed this, ze." She turned to me. "Hey...wanna race to the shop, ze?" I smiled, and nodded.

We both launched into the air and flew as fast as we could. It took all of three minutes to get to her shop.

I landed first. "Heh heh," I laughed, "looks like you've been getting rusty without your broom!"

"Yep, you beat me fair and square, ze!" We both started laughing.

Then, I realized...we made it. We both managed to keep each other alive throughout all that has happened. We had been to hell and back, faced the devil's sister, and stood on the edge of darkness...and yet here we were. Standing here, in front of each other, close enough to touch. I turned a slight red. Marisa saw me blushing, and did the same.

Marisa reached up and touched my hand. I smiled, and kissed her.

/ / / / /

I returned home, and saw the large, shredded front end of my house. "...Eh. I'll fix it later." I dragged a folding chair up to the livingroom, and watched the morning sky get brighter.


End file.
